Witness of the Dark
by TheStupidSheep
Summary: Mikasa Ackerman, a young girl that expects to become a legend in the dancing world, sees her life transform in a horror story when she witnesses the unthinkable. Knowing the risks of what she's doing, she leads herself in a supernatural world in which her obsession for dancing turns over a mysterious creature that visits her at the middle of the night everyday. RIVAMIKA/VAMPIRE AU
1. Stay Still

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **x**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin.**_

* * *

Eren was making out with another girl… Again.

As she walked to the women's bathroom, trying not to touch the sweaty people dancing around her, tears came down her face. It was stupid how much his attitude brought her down. She should've gotten used to it, should've understood the idea long time ago, but her heart insisted in going back to him, even when her feelings weren't reciprocate.

Her knee high boots made echoes as she entered the bathroom. She went into a cubicle and sat on the toilet, crying her eyes out. Her wails weren't cushioned like the music outside the room, and this made her feel worse. She hated crying, hated to feel weak. The fact that her best friend did it even without knowing was almost hilarious.

She was supposed to be happy. Damn, she won a fucking gold medal in the individual dance competition that morning. After months and months of practicing, she did the perfect performance she craved for every day. Her friends screamed and went crazy after she won the first place. It was a tough competition, a lot of dancers from different countries and academies participated, but she showed all her talent and charm in every step she took, surprising all her opponents. As if this wasn't enough, she also won silver in the pax de deux she danced with Eren. They could have won gold, but they lacked of chemistry. Like always, Eren didn't show the same emotions she did when they danced together. This broke more her heart.

 _Stupid, you're stupid._

She gasped for air, trying to calm down.

Her cellphone rang. It was Historia.

Sighing, she turned off the device and picked up her legs, resting her chin in her arms and her arms in her knees. Then, she closed her eyes.

Someone broke into the bathroom violently just when she was starting to feel her heart getting slower. A mix of gasps and little moans followed, all of them coming from a woman.

Mikasa frowned. _What the fuck?_ The club had rules that were very clear: No cuddling in the bathrooms. Didn't they know they had a damn hotel above them? It seemed like this horny couple couldn't resist themselves and had to finish the job here. So she stayed still, trying not to let the sounds they were making affect her. When these became louder and louder, Mikasa's body started to betray her, feeling like she was burning in hell after a male groan reached her ears. She thought of going out of the cubicle and screw up their horny moment, even imagined herself scolding them, but these ideas faded slowly when another male moan was heard in the place.

 _Oh, God. What am I doing?_

They were going to fuck there without knowing Mikasa was listening to everything. It wasn't like they cared, anyway. After all, it was a fucking public bathroom. She put her hands in her flushed face. Her body was aching there, between her thighs, and she could feel her breasts getting sensible with every passionate breath. Still, she didn't move, just sat there, listening, her heart beating faster and faster, her skin bristling with every little sound _he_ did.

She didn't lie to herself: her curiosity was the main reason she stayed. Mikasa never had anything with anyone. She always focused in her responsibilities and even when she liked Eren, she didn't let that affect her when she was training or studying. Still, she remembered two times when she was alone in the dark and her curiosity leaded her to watch porn, not because she felt in the mode to, but because she was curious about how it felt to have sex. She ended frustrated, the material not being what she was looking for.

This time was different, this time she almost could feel the smell of sex going into her nostrils and making her dizzy, making her feel _she_ was the woman _he_ was about to take, the desperation and eagerness in the woman's voice as she craved for his co…

She opened her eyes, shocked.

It was then than the sounds changed.

"What are you doing?" Asked the woman. Her voice was very, very sensual, and Mikasa frowned when she discovered how her legs were starting to go down the floor to stand up and get closer to the voice. "Hey, stop. I told you I didn't want to… _Stop"_ The voice was so, so captivating… It felt like she was being called by it, like she was getting trapped in a hole of pure lust.

 _What the hell…?_

She put her arms around her legs, making them stay _on_ the toilet. Eyes wide open, she tried to see what was going on through the small slit of the cubicle. At the beginning, she didn't understand the picture in front of her. She narrowed her yes this time and, finally, she saw the figure of the couple.

The man was giving Mikasa his back, and he had the woman's arms over her head, her body facing the wall. He was wearing a black overall and had an undercut. He looked very, very muscular despite his height.

He was kissing the woman's neck. That's what Mikasa thought when she saw his head between her head and shoulder… Until the woman screamed in horror and he covered her mouth in an _unbelievable_ fast move.

A series of weird, fast and unbearable movements followed. Mikasa's lips opened in a terrified expression, awareness hitting her like a firetruck. She didn't believe in fairy tales or legends. She could remember when, being a teenager, she got a little obsession on Dracula, but nothing else. They were pure entertainment, stories that a grandma would tell her grandchildren to amaze them and make them laugh, stories that would be part of someone's hobbies.

And still, believing it or not, the man was drinking the woman's blood. She saw how he pushed her against the wall, forcing her body to stay still even when she put on resistance. Her hands tried to get him off of her, but it was like trying to move a mountain, and Mikasa _sensed_ it. She wanted it to be a joke, a very realistic prank, and then he growled, hitched his fingers in the woman's arms until they teared apart her skin and sucked _more._

It was real, thought Mikasa, as her blank face got away of the slit, her instinct telling her to be quieter than ever if she wanted to live. She couldn't see his face, but she was able to see how his head moved as he took out all the female's blood, she was able to hear the sound of his throat swallowing the red liquid.

So she stayed silent. Silent until the woman dropped her last sound, a painful clamor that shook Mikasa's body. Silent until the monster moaned one more time and his body betrayed him, twitching slowly as pleasure went through him. Silent until he gasped for air and another growl came out of his mouth.

 _Don't move._

Mikasa wasn't thinking in anything else, just in how much she wanted to live. She didn't care the fact that her life was in danger because of a _vampire,_ she cared that her life was in danger and nothing more. She felt selfish, even stupid, thinking that way when a creature that was supposed to be a myth was no more than ten steps away from her, but her mind only rounded around it, around _surviving against this monster._

The sound of a body being dropped in the floor made her startle.

And then, on the other side, the silence was made too.

Mikasa hid her face on her legs and covered her head with her arms in a very slow move, pleading in silence her clothes didn't do much noise. She stayed there for what it felt like an eternity, fear her only companion. Even worse, the feeling grow up and up, her mind telling her that the creature was still there, watching her, teasing her, knowing since the beginning that a little, weak human witnessed everything.

 _I'm going to die here._

Was she?

And as this thought betrayed her brain, someone opened the door of the bathroom.

"Mikasa, are you here?"

She straightened, opening her eyes. She knew that voice very well. Jumping off of the toilet, she opened her cubicle and crashed with her trainer, Hange Zoe. The woman grabbed her shoulders and checked her from head to toe.

"You scared us! We've been looking for you the last hour. What were you doing here?"

Mikasa didn't answer. She just looked around her, searching for any hint of what happened, but there was no one, _no fucking one,_ only Hange and her. Still, it felt _wrong._

 _How's possible…?_

"Mikasa…?"

She shook her head and blinked.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Are you OK? You look like you just saw Jean's balls."

Mikasa smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

"I'm OK." She looked around one more time, and then put her eyes on her coach, that walked towards the mirror to check her eye contacts.

"Hange?"

The woman turned around, staring at her favorite dancer.

"Yes?"

"Was here… was here somebody when you entered?"

She shuddered, hold Mikasa on her left forearm and started to go out of the place.

"No, only you and me. Why?"

 _Because a man… a vampire was here with a woman that he killed after he sucked the hell out of her blood._

Mikasa let her trainer guide her through the people on the dancefloor, her mind centered in the same scene again and again. The music was only a buzz in her ears and wherever she saw, she had the feeling that she was being stalked.

She felt helpless and indescribable fragile.

When they reached their friends, Hange turned around to see her with more attention again.

"Mikasa, are you sure everything's OK?"

But even when the world seemed to spin, when the ghost of horror danced through her veins and arteries and the word _vampire_ went on replay in her brain, the only thing that Mikasa couldn't forget now was how he growled, how his body moved against the woman with obvious pleasure.

"Everything's OK."

She discovered, in the middle of her celebration after a triumph, what she truly wanted.

She discovered she wasn't normal at all.

* * *

 _ **Yaaaaai, a Vampire AU. Hope you like it.**_


	2. A Silhouette Staring

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **x**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

"You are going to dance Le Corsaire."

That's what the artistic director said after they went back from their competition abroad. Around eighty dancers were listening to him, all of them excited to finally perform it.

"The ones that want to opt for the main roles can prepare to make auditions in six weeks. While now, you're going to keep up with your current training." No one said something. They got the message he sent: he was looking for new principal dancers.

So, the tension fell on the dancers' shoulders. All of them wanted to perform as Medora and Conrad, all of them wanted to be the star of the night. Thinking in their own resolutions, they didn't pay attention to anybody's attitude. Not even Mikasa's.

When her quiet presence passed between them, her calm personality making their silence more awkward, they thought it was part of that tension that covered all of them. Even the ones that weren't affected at all by the important statements of the artistic director believed she was being herself as always, but it wasn't the truth.

Mikasa hadn't slept since they went back from the competition abroad. She had been waking up at three or four in the morning, sweating and breathing like her life was in danger.

She felt it that way.

Then, unable to rest again, she started to surf internet, searching information about fantastic creatures. She'd watched all the movies about vampires she could, none of them scaring her, but they didn't give her the peace she looked for. The sun would go out and she would be there, still in front of the computer, dissatisfied and with the same sense of danger that made her nights a pure hell.

Every nightmare she had was different from the others, but with the same ending: she being pressed against a wall by an entity that desired to drink her blood. She hated it, hated the bitter feel in her mouth every time she'd woken up almost crying.

She wanted to find an explanation to what she saw that day in the club. Every day, at least, was a little more solace as she walked around the people she loved. It made her feel normal and forget what happened. Maybe it was a hallucination, product of all the time she spent practicing and fighting with Eren to make their pax de deux better, or maybe caused thanks to the alcohol she had in her body. Whatever the reason it was, every morning felt like a little step forward, the overcoming embracing her with each movie, each documental, each book she read about _vampires._

 _It was stupid_ , she thought as she started to do the exercises that day in the ballet school. _You can't really be thinking in the vampires' existence._

But then, at night, the nightmares went to her again, and Mikasa fell again in the same memory: the creature killing that woman, moaning with every swig, enjoying her like she was some kind of feast.

After two weeks of the same thing, Mikasa decided to stop watching stuff related to vampires. Instead, she did abs each time a new nightmare attacked. This helped her to sleep earlier, but it didn't stop the nightmares. After two weeks of doing abs without results in her sleeping habits, an idea crossed her mind. She was doing the plank when, frustrated, stood up and walked over the window of her room, sweat covering her forehead.

Maria City was not that big. It had an oceanic climate with very high rainfall. Wherever she saw were large wooded areas, which made the place very beautiful and pure. There were more rainy days than warm days, and Mikasa loved it very much. Her parents always took her to trips, teaching her the importance of the nature.

One of the things she used to do when she was younger was to dance in the backyard of her house. It didn't have a fence so, when she danced there, she felt inside a magical world, knowing that a great forest was just some steps from her. She stopped doing it when her parents put her in ballet school, having no time at all to enjoy the freeness of the woods, the smell of the pines and the cold air touching her fine skin. Her dancing skills started to being polished, restricted to the elegance and perfection of the ballet.

Watching through the window, Mikasa felt this was the final option. She had hope that, repeating her favorite childhood fun, the horrible memory of that night in the club was going to vanish and let her sleep _in peace._

With resolution in her eyes, she took her ipod and a bottle of water and went out, only wearing her pajama dress and a black sweater on it. Bared feet, she walked slowly on the wet grass, pure silence around her. Her neighbors' house, the Jaegers, had its lights off, just as her own house. Sighing, she put her earphones on and tried to focus in the music. It was dark, really dark. The sun hadn't come out yet and, by the feeling of the air, it was going to rain soon.

Her eyes fell over the trees that marked the end of the backyard and the beginning of the forest. It was absolutely black, fog dancing in a slow pace among the branches of the pines. She swallowed, blinking twice as she scold herself for being a coward. Giving her back to the forest, she started to dance. She felt forced and mechanical, every step came through her legs like she had stones on her toes. She rolled her eyes at her own lack of confidence at that moment. Mikasa didn't want to be awkward. More than that, she wanted to dance even better than on stage, feel like a wild animal going back to its roots.

The movements started to flow, music taking over her body. A huge smile appeared in her face as emotion made her hop twice, these followed by three leaps she did in a rush. Her breath was erratic, her arms moved like snakes looking for someone to bite, her belly burning for exercising before, but Mikasa didn't care. She felt alive, happiness sparkling around her, her dim thoughts washed away thanks to her passion: dancing. She even sang the lyrics of the song, no caring at all how her lungs screamed for air. Her thighs felt on fire, her hips never moved so free before. She rolled in the floor, moved her head like a rock star, she even did an aerial cartwheel and a full twisting layout, flips she learnt imitating her favorite gymnastics.

Mikasa wasn't stupid: she knew the talent she had. Whatever she wanted to learn, she learned it. Nothing was an obstacle for her. Her mother liked to call her the next _Prima ballerina abssoluta,_ enhancing her love for dancing, her obsession for being the principal dancer. It wasn't only her talent, but her irremediable beauty that automatically put her in a higher spot. Although this was obvious, she didn't think about it as a wildcard, and she found herself envying the delicacy of the other dancers very often, hating her own abs or the way her muscles marked by making simple moves.

Right now, however, none of that cared. Mikasa was being herself again.

The song — _the fifth song—_ finished.

She stopped the shuffling on her ipod to breath, wiping out the sweat on her face, and laughed in silence at her own amusement. Cold air caressed her back, her hair strings at her nape raising. She stood there, still smiling, when sudden consciousness crossed her mind.

 _The silence._ Forests were places in which noise was an immutable characteristic. At night, insects and reptiles did little hissing sounds, so not hearing them was definitively _odd_. She felt her breath stop, her skin turning from red to white in just a matter of seconds, her knees trembling, almost unable to stand.

And then the feeling, the ghastly sensation of being _observed._ Mikasa's legs shook when she turned around to see what was behind her.

Wind moved the trees at the end of the backyard in a very furious way. Between the tree trunks, only black spaces. The moon was hiding together with the stars, and the air felt thicker around her, impossible to inhale. No sound came from anywhere, just dead, frightening, and paralyzing hush. Her family was right behind, and yet Mikasa felt alone and far, far away. Her grey eyes blinked every two seconds, her opened lips as pale as the rest of her face.

She watched at the same part of the forest for what it felt like ages when suddenly, just like she was witnessing some kind of sinister hallucination, a silhouette formed among the pines. Mikasa tripped, shocked, and fell to the ground, eyes focused in the figure that was getting closer. It stopped at the end of her backyard, and its face was hidden in the shadows.

Doubtless, what she was watching was the same creature of the club. The same shape, muscular and not tall at all, but with a predator aura that froze her extremities and didn't let her breath. _He_ moved his head to one side, examining her perhaps, and she felt a lone tear run down her face. She couldn't stop staring at him. Once she turned to run, Mikasa knew she was dead.

She never thought of that, the possibility of being found by him. How foolish was to think that this was the solution for her sleeping problems? Going out in the middle of the night, alone, with a forest in front of her? In that moment she hated herself for being so naive. Maybe he was waiting for her all this time, hunting her in a stealthy way, and she came and offered her life like a big treat. Mikasa even bet the monster was maybe surprised at her lack of intelligence. After all, she didn't speak about what happened with anyone.

At that moment, she didn't care about being weak. Again, she only cared about _surviving._ Thus she did what she only thought was her only escape.

She spoke.

"Who are you?" Her voice broke twice, showing how scared she was.

He didn't move, nor answer.

"Why are you here?" Mikasa attempted to put on her feet, but her body was immobilized by her own terror. However, her voice came more appeased.

Five seconds passed until he finally moved. Just one step closer, touching the beginning of the backyard. Mikasa pulled back, her breath in her throat when his face came clearer to her.

Insecurity showed in her face. Somehow, she understood why that woman enjoyed him so much. He was handsome, really handsome, in a way she didn't expect. High cheeks, full lips, and eyes that seemed to catch the low light that was around them. A permanent glare in them told her he was upset… and she was the main reason. Almost forgetting why she's scared, the thought made her pull back more, breathe getting faster.

He looked at her so, _so_ stilled, she doubted he was breathing. Mikasa sucked down and checked his clothes, noticing his black turtleneck sweater beneath his long black jacket. He had pants and military boots… also black.

She hesitated to speak again, but she did, ignoring how dry her eyes had become.

"Do I know you? What are you doing in my backyard?" She asked, trying to imprint some anger in her voice. "If you don't leave, I'll call the police."

He took a step forward, making her jump a little.

" _Who are you? Why are you here? Do I know you?"_

Mikasa felt her abdomen contract at his voice. She stopped a moan — _a moan—_ at her throat, her face feeling redder than ever. She didn't do it in purpose. It was more like… like when she heard that woman's voice in the club. Eagerness through her chest, down her belly, and a necessity to run to his voice.

Just that this time it felt worse.

"Unneeded questions to make me believe you don't know who I am, _what_ I am."

He was right. Mikasa tried to pull back, even when she felt frozen… no, not frozen. She felt more similar to a _lava_ puddle, thick and extremely hot. He casually took more steps nearer, Mikasa feeling how her hope reached the lowest spot in her heart.

Still, she wasn't crying. Mikasa wasn't going to let him see her suffering, beseeching for her life. She didn't give a fuck what he was, even when her body reacted so painfully to his enchanting aura.

"Are you going to kill me?" She questioned him. Her voice trembled, but it also came out in a low tone, like a vain threat.

He approximated, and approximated, and approximated. Every stride felt like an upper stage in Mikasa's temperature. He bended, the color of his orbs being clearer now he was just in front of her, thirty centimeters between her feet and his legs.

His eyes were black. But Mikasa's naive investigations told her the sinister truth: he was _hungry._

She let out a little gasp, but she didn't scream. He turned his head again and she was able to see confusion through his angular face before blank mask covered it again.

"Are you going to kill me?" Repeated.

He stayed silent, his arms resting on his knees, darkness surrounding him as it recognized his nature. He sighed, cold air like ice caressing Mikasa's cheeks. Seconds later, a light went on inside the house behind her. At this point, Mikasa was so into him, that she didn't even realize she felt disappointment when she heard the fridge door being opened inside the kitchen.

Somehow, his obscure eyes appeared to be _smiling._

"I can't kill you."

Mikasa, still scared, scowled a little.

"Why?"

"You are not giving me a reason to."

Someone opened the back door of the porche.

"Who's there? Oh!"

Mikasa's heart skipped a beat. She turned her face to her mom, which was lighting the backyard with the flash of her cellphone.

"Mikasa! Jesus Christ! You scared the fuck out of me!"

The girl stood up in less than a second and turned to see… no one.

He was gone again.

"S-sorry mom" She murmured, her voice not sounding convincing enough. She hugged herself when the wind hit her body, grey eyes searching for the same silhouette that haunt her, but the forest was in its natural stage again, as if the living finally could leave out a breath of relief.

Her mom claim her attention once more.

"Sorry? What are you doing here, outside, at this hour? You're gonna get a cold!"

Mikasa hurried up to her side, trying not to appear comforted now that she heard her voice again. Then she remembered that, definitively, he was still close, and fear reached her bones as she dragged her mom inside the house with her.

 _He's dangerous._

Was he?

"I'm sorry." She repeated, while she locked the door. Her mom frowned when she saw Mikasa doing it. "I couldn't sleep, so I went to practice some _cabrioles."_

" _Cabrioles?_ On the backyard?"

Mikasa looked at her mom and pressed her back on the locked door, finally taking a deep breath. Her voice came plain.

"It helps me lose my fear when I do it in the dark."

Her mom observed her with an unconvinced expression for two long seconds. She crossed her arms.

"Is Eren finally getting into you?" Her mom said, checking through the window to see if Eren was there.

Mikasa put a horror face.

"Wait, _what?_ No!" She exclaimed. "I was just dancing, mom. Dancing _alone_ , OK?"

"You know you can talk to me about it, I know is hard to be honest when you're not into courtships and-"

She almost rolled her eyes.

"Mom, please, _stop."_

Her mother exhaled and nodded slowly, still frowning.

"Alright, alright. If you say it that way, it sounds very weird. I didn't know you had sleeping problems."

 _Me neither, mom._

She stayed unresponsive for some seconds, her brain creating a lie as fast as it could.

"I have an audition in two weeks. It's… an important role."

"You always get important roles."

"Yes, but this is _more_ important."

Her mom put a comprehensive face, nodding exaggeratedly.

"Got it. Don't worry, child. You'll have that role, you always do. And if you don't, remember you're still hotter than all those whiny girls."

After exchanging some other words with her, Mikasa went to her room, paranoia making her close her window and even put some books in it after running the curtains to hide the forest beyond the house. She covered her body from head to toe with her black quilt and put on her earphones, shutting her eyes so hard they burned.

 _Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it._

" _You are not giving me a reason to."_

Mikasa hid her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking without spilling tears.

 _I don't want to know what's going on with me._

She could remember the terror, the delicacy of her life at his mortal hands, a string he could cut with a simple, effortless motion.

But now when she was alone again, she recognized that what she felt was product of being exposed to the unknown, she recognized she was unable to deny that he was the most beautiful creature she had seem in her whole life.

And that… scared her more than knowing he was a monster.

She closed the window, not only in a vain hope to protect herself from him, but also to protect herself from her own mind.

Not lasting long, Mikasa fell asleep, this time without nightmares torturing her.

* * *

 **I should say this, is important to know: The story is a mix of Twilight (without the sparkling shit), Black Swan (without the weird hallucinations), some kind of vampire crime monarchy (there has to be a fucking word for it, BUT I DON'T REMEMBER D:) with a small adaptation of ACWNR (you'll get the point soon). Yes, there's going to be a lot of typical (and NECESSARY) shit: smut, drama, angst, blood (no me digas). I'll try to make every chapter as long as I can, but since I'm still adapting my ass to write in English (I'm Venezuelan, if you're interested to know, eh), I can't do as much as I want. Anyway. you can follow me in Tumblr and make questions about the story if you want, I'll try to answer without spoiling you. I hope you enjoy this journey like I know I'll do, and have a great week!**

 **La que tals.**


	3. The Call of the Darkness

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **x**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

Mikasa's nightmares stopped, but she still woke up at the same hour every day, and now it was because she couldn't help but think about _him._ She walked in her room, fighting with herself to get her crazy ideas straight until the morning light reached her room. She felt the same necessity calling, the forest asking her to embrace her in its darkness.

Eye bags got darker in her face as the days passed, but her parents didn't say anything about it. She asked for privacy and this request was always accepted thanks to her determination in everything she did. However, she never took advantage of this. In fact, she sometimes wished they put on more pressure, like typical parents did.

It was the way the people she loved treated her that made her more self-conscious of her own decisions and thoughts, which let her to not talk about her problems or worries. Not her feelings, not her opinions, not her likes or dislikes… She did it only when it was asked, and sometimes she didn't even answered at all.

And now that was troubling her. If it wasn't for this, she would had spoken of what she witnessed long time ago, she would had looked for help, would had screamed the truth to everybody in the club, would had found more terrifying the death of that woman than her current obsession with the killer.

 _Now it's too late,_ she thought one of those nights in which she couldn't sleep, walking towards the end of the backyard. The gloom felt so wrong, yet her only desire was to hear _his_ captivating voice again.

She stood right at the beginning of the woods, her hands sweating inside her grey sweater. The breeze moved her hair strands in a slow motion, hitting her cold face and making her remember her weaknesses. She opened her mouth around five times, but no words came out. She let a little breathe pass through her lips, nervousness in every furious beat of her heart. Closing her eyes, she convinced herself she wasn't wrong. At all.

 _It doesn't feel that way._

"Are you there?"

Mikasa opened her eyes. The forest was as dim as a wolf's mouth, but silence wasn't in its areas today. She heard all kind of natural sounds coming from there, and it felt so normal that courage polluted her insane resolutions. "Tell me you're here, _please."_ She whispered, and her plead was in vain. He wasn't there, she could feel it. Mikasa was alone, completely alone. Her fists clenched with anger coming up through her body until it exploded in words. "What have you done to me?!" She screamed, but not louder enough to wake up anyone. "I can't… I can't stop thinking about you." Admitted in a low tone, her eyes glaring at the dark as if he was hiding there.

After some seconds, Mikasa shook her head and entered to her house. Yes, he wasn't there, but his presence wasn't essential to answer her own doubts, all of them based in her desires: she wasn't angry because of her insomnia, or angry because of what he did to that woman or what he did to her.

She was angry because he didn't come back, he didn't come to see her, to follow her as she sensed days before he popped up from the dark to face her.

 _Darkness is the place in which the most dangerous creatures of this world live._

That's what her father used to say when she was younger, a way to ensure she didn't try to go in the forest alone.

How was she going to tell him she witnessed the worst of the dark and wanted to do it again?

…

Five days before the auditions for Le Corsaire, Mikasa's friends went to her house. All of them were finally in the town and it was almost the end of the summer. In some days, most of them would had to go back to university.

It was hard to make a reunion, since each one of them had to visit different places before going to Maria City. However, they had a great opportunity and everything was arranged in a very short time.

Mikasa's house wasn't the main option to make their crazy meeting, but she was so lost in her herself that she said yes when her friend —and dancer like her—, Historia, asked her if they could choose her house as the place of encounter.

Now, almost twenty boys and girls were inside her house hanging out.

She went out of the house some hours later, fresh air waiting for her. She sat on the little stairs of the door, admiring the moon that looked like it was being hold by the top of the pines. It was weird to see the clear sky with only some little, fluffy clouds that danced among the stars. Her expression went delighted, internally deciding she was going to remember the beautiful sight the rest of her life.

Seconds later, Armin opened the door at her back and sat with her, a fair smile in his lips.

Mikasa didn't try to stop when she looked at the trees in front of her, tension showing in her face.

"What?" he said as he followed her gaze. Mikasa let out an awkward sound and smiled, her eyes widening.

"Nothing. Are you having fun?"

Armin smiled too, his blue eyes lighter with the reflection of the moon on then.

"Yes. I missed the group. We didn't have this fun since our last days in high school." He saw Mikasa's calm face and coughed silently. "I haven't… seen you a lot with them tonight. Is there something bothering you?"

Mikasa heaved a sigh, her eyes falling in the forest again. By the way he was observing her, Mikasa knew he noticed her tired face long time ago.

"I'm having problems to sleep." She confessed. Armin was the closest she had to a best friend while she was in High School. After he got a scholarship in one of the most prestigious universities in the country to study physics, she felt a little lost, not because she needed him, but because it was a strange feeling she never experienced before: being separated from someone loved.

"I can see that." He put a thoughtful expression. "Is it because of Eren?"

She smiled. After all, everybody knew what she felt for him.

"No." She waited some seconds to continue. "I wish it was that the reason."

He raised his eyebrows in an aggrieved expression, but then he nodded.

"What is it, then?"

She thought about it for a moment, pondering her words.

"I guess is my future. Recently, it's been feeling so, _so_ far away from me. I still want to go to Opera Royal Ballet, you know that."

He smiled.

"Is it hard?"

She observed the sky.

"No."

"Nothing's hard for you."

Mikasa flushed, but her serene mien didn't change.

"I wish dancing was hard for me."

"Why?" He asked.

"Right now…" She murmured, holding her chin in the palm of her right hand as she took a deep breath. "Is what I need the most. Eren's like that, isn't he? He doesn't rest until everything's perfect. If it were that way for me too, I wouldn't have time to think about other things."

"Other things, like…?"

She tightened herself in the jacket.

"Things… but enough about me. What about you? How's life at the university?"

Armin laughed, but let the topic turn over him.

"Harder than I thought. Finding the X never felt so difficult before." Both laughed quietly. "But I never had so much fun trying to." He flushed a little, a side smile coming to his face as he looked up to the sky. "I'm so happy to see you, Mikasa. I missed you. Girls aren't common in our school, and is hard to live between competitive nerds."

She raised her chin.

"I'm a nerd too."

"You were a nerd. Now you're the next _Prima Ballerina Assoluta_."

She gave him a little push.

"I missed you too." He grinned and put his left arm around her, making her rest her strong body in his chest. After some seconds of pure silence, Armin spoke again.

"You know you cannot be like this all the time, Mikasa. One day, you're going to explode."

She closed her eyes, swallowing. He was right, she needed to talk about this with someone.

"I've been obsessed with something… I don't want to, but is like water." She opened her hands in front of her face, analyzing them. "It escapes from my hands when I try to keep it in control. I don't know why is it so difficult, but that's not the worst part."

Armin's blonde hair looked white thanks to the light of the moon, almost as white as his face in that moment.

"The worst part is that I-"

"HOLY HELL! ARMIN, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS SHIT!" Screamed Eren inside the house.

Mikasa's eyes went huge. She separated from Armin, putting space between them, fear showing in her face because of what she was about to say. The blonde one saw how she changed to her old attitude again, but if he had something to say, he kept it to himself.

"Sorry, Mikasa." He stood up, walking to the door behind them. "We'll continue this conversation later. Are you coming inside?"

She denied, her eyes on the sky.

"I'm staying."

"Alright, then." He turned back, getting into the house. "I'm coming, Eren!"

What Mikasa didn't know was that Armin saw it since they started talking: how her shiny eyes focused always in the forest.

…

 _He is a monster._

Yet she woke up after dreaming with him.

 _He killed an innocent woman._

Yet she tended to forget that when she thought of his face.

 _He is dangerous. He is going to kill you._

Yet she was walking through the backyard again, craving for something she couldn't understand, something she didn't _want_ to understand, just feel.

 _He is here._

She sensed it, the difference in the air, in the atmosphere. That night the moon was lightning everything as it did hours ago. With all the lights out and the music of the meeting with her friends off, the stars were clear in the sky, its glow making the forest look like a magical place… If it wasn't for the silence. The only sound was her own unsteady breath and the minimal motions of the pines, caused by the breeze.

She glared at the woods.

"I know you're here." She said. "Please, come out to the light."

No motion. Mikasa stood there, her fingers scratching the fabric of her green pijamas. Then, slowly, the same silhouette of her dreams appeared beyond the trees that weren't reached by the dim light of the moon, his steps so calm and soft it looked like he was floating.

Light touched his face, and Mikasa saw his eyes. Today, they were different.

His irises were red, red like _blood._

 _He has killed someone else recently._

Mikasa felt her legs weaker. Nevertheless, she didn't think of going back not even once, and when he was finally standing just five steps from her, Mikasa realized she wasn't scared anymore: just terribly nervous and anxious.

 _You wanted this._

She bended slowly, her grey, human eyes never deviating from his red, dangerous ones. She sat on the grass, her heels pressing against her buttocks, and she exposed her life to him. His eyelids had fallen until they were only two splits that promised death, curiosity in them.

When she felt her heartbeats normalize, he spoke, sending the same chills through her skin.

 _"Brat."_ He said, his voice making her take a deep, shaking breath. "You're a naive human. You kept coming."

She looked away, a furious blush covering her cheeks.

"How do you know that?" She murmured.

His face showed amusement even when he wasn't smiling.

"Your smell is all over the place."

She cleared her throat, feeling offended.

 _"Don't."_ He hissed. "I didn't say you smell bad."

Her eyes went to his face again, suspicious.

"Is not like I did it on purpose." She spoke, trying to ignore the fact that he read her thoughts through her face. "You…" She felt her face getting red. "Are always in my head and I can't… stop it." _I don't want it to stop. "_ I have this necessity to… come here and…"

But she couldn't say anything else. She knew what was next: _Can you stop it? Can you leave me alone? Can you disappear and stop coming?_ Still, only mutism came from her lips.

He stared for a long moment, but Mikasa sensed he wasn't really paying her attention. His mind was away from there. He turned his great back to her, and Mikasa watched how he stood for three long minutes in that position.

In that moment, she took note of how normal he looked from behind. A simple man, perhaps from a powerful family, based on his clothes. The way he was standing, so casually, yet showing reservation, could had been easily confused with a business man during a vacation trip.

On the other hand, all of these went invalid when his aura reached her: a desperately alarm that told her he wasn't a trusted one, that she must had ran away since the beginning. Yet, her chest screamed every time she thought about him, her hands shook, longing his skin like if they knew who he was.

Mikasa covered her mouth, not understanding how her need for him was bigger than her fear.

He chose that moment to look at her again in a tensed way.

"Did you feel it that night, in the club?"

She blinked.

"What?"

"An uncontrollable attraction to us."

Mikasa frowned, but she thought about it… and yes, she remembered having felt that when she heard the woman's voice. However, it wasn't as hard and desperate as she felt it with him.

"Yes."

For the first time since she saw him, the vampire sighed, his exotic features showing something closer to _anxiety._ He took a step closer.

"Are you feeling it right now?"

Mikasa's heart started to beat so hard that she didn't need to answer, _he heard it,_ somehow. Even with this, fury flashed in his eyes, like he couldn't believe it.

"You don't care what I am."

She swallowed, tears accumulating in her yes. A little _no_ came from her lips. He grinned, mocking her. Mikasa frowned.

"I don't care you're a _vampire._ "

She said it. That was it, the stupid, unbelievable, yet terrible truth. He was a vampire and she _didn't care._

"Do you care now?"

The next second and without blinking, he was over her, his hands grabbing her wrists, his strong knees pushing her torso and between her legs.

She couldn't breathe, the air got stuck in her chest just as she felt his body, his harsh, cold hands touching her. Fire exploded inside her, and she tried to tell him how deep he affected her, but it was impossible. The only she could do was say no with her head as little cold whispers touched her skin, making her melt. He was cold, really cold, yet she never felt something so heated going crazy inside of her before.

He wasn't breathing either. His fists tightened on her wrists and Mikasa's lips opened without any sound coming out.

 _"Do you care now?"_ He growled, his voice transforming in something that definitively didn't sound human.

He showed his true face.

His eyeteeth transformed in big tusks, so big that he had to open his mouth to not cut himself. They angled until a series of small, sharp and lethal teeth replaced the humans he used to have, and a roar came out of him, huge enough to made her tear, thanks to her amazement. The sclera of his eyes turned black, making the red of his orbs more sinister than before, and Mikasa doubted there was an animal that could resemble the horror he showed. Little drops of saliva hit her face as the roar ended, and the silence that followed was like an omen of her death.

Tears rolled down her temples.

"I'm not afraid anymore." She managed to say.

They stayed like that for some seconds, both impacted because of what that meant.

His face went back to his human form as he stood up, pure shock in his features.

Mikasa sat and stared at him, that was sitting against a tree now, his eyes never letting go of her body, going from her toes to her head and then back to her toes, obvious unbelief in them.

"It's impossible." He muttered. "How's…?" He stopped, his eyes going to the house behind her. In a sudden, his face went to the same cold expression. "Your mother is waking up." He glared at her. "If you're intelligent enough, you're going to go back to your house and never think about coming here again."

 _NO!_

Mikasa's hands went to her chest, pain crossing through it like an arrow.

"No…" She whispered.

He denied, desperation floating from his aura.

"I know what you want, _Mikasa,_ and it's not me."

 _What is this?_ Thought Mikasa, _why does it hurt so much to let go of him?_

" _Please…"_

She heard the door behind her being opened.

"Mikasa? Are you outside again? What was that?"

Her mother turned on the flash of her cellphone, and Mikasa murmured _please_ before he transformed in ashes until there was nothing. The lightning reached her, showing she was alone now.

Her mom got closer.

"Mikasa? Are you crying?"

She touched her cheeks.

That was, she was crying.

 _You're not… You can't leave me._

She was sure, _he_ was going to come back to her.

* * *

 **Like Eren said, holy hell, that was hard to write.** **I did a Playlist of the main songs I listened to while writing this. You can check it out in my profile or in my tumblr, I'll be adding songs as I update the story.**

 **Also, this fanfic is going to be a little slow burn (or whatever the name of this type of fanfic is) so you need to be patient until we reach the moment we're all waiting for *raises eyebrows like Hange-san***

 **Thank you so much for your reviews and good messages.** **What do you think of this chapter? Please, let me now, I'm dying to see if you liked it or not!**

 **También hablo español, así que pueden escribirme sus comentarios en ese idioma si así lo prefieren.**

 **Thank you, see you next update!**

 **La que tals.**


	4. A Monster's Answers

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **By TheStupidSheep**_

 **xx**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): How was your audition guys?_

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): Amazing, not a single mistake… What about you?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): I almost lost balance in one of my fouettés D:_

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): Oh, rlly? :/_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Yeah, I got scared after that, but I did all what I culd to not show it. What about u?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Could*_

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): I did gr8, I hope they choose me, but I don' think so. I'm too short to take the role :Cries:_

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): I'm so fucking hungry, d. The worst thing is that I can't eat pizza bcoz I'm 2 pounds fatter than the last month #KillMePls_

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): Sasha, pls, shoo. Historia c'mon, not that bullshit again. You'll get the role, 0 worries._

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): Is easy for you to say it, you're not in the corps anymore._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): I was, but now I'm first dancer (and a proud one). #ErenCouldNever_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Oh, shut up, horseface._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): At least I don't look like an anime character._

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Yeah, that anime character is more relevant than your ass._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): Is miri rilivint thin yir iss_

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): I just ordered a pizza, fml._

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): And what about Mikasa? She hasn't appeared since the audition._

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Idk where is she. Are u going to take the main role?_

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): My leaps sucked so nope. Hange is gonna kill me, I'm too fat._

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Yeah, you told us that alrdy._

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): I'm sure Mikasa is going to win the main role of the ballet. She always do and she looks a lot like Medora._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): Actually, I saw her leaving after her audition and she didn't look happy at all. I talked to Hange and she told me that Mikasa lost her balance twice during her fouettés and she shook a lot during most of the adagio._

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): Wtf no babe, what is u doing?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): You've got to be kidding, horseface_

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): What? I mean, no offense, but we're pure shit next to Mikasa, so this is definitively weird, lol._

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Ikr_

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): So that's why I'm wondering.. Who's gonna take the role then?_

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): Ok, my pizza arrived, c ya 2morrow._

Mikasa stopped reading the messages and blocked her cellphone, drinking wine from her cup as she stared at the trees in front of her with a concentrated, bored face. A cricket made its sounds not that far from where she was sitting and she almost moved her hand to smash it, pure irritation flowing inside of her. She checked the time: 5:19 am. She suppressed a yawning that was coming out of her mouth and wiped the tears that went with the slumber. She looked at the empty bottle at her feet, the second one she drank that week —the first was a day before her audition— and a tired sigh escaped as she stood up, took the bottle and her cellphone and started to walk through the backyard to her house, not watching behind even once.

Just that this time, she decided, it was the last one.

Somehow, she was going to stop it.

…

Hours later, at the time that the dancers started stretching and warming in the academy, Mikasa went straight to the board in which the names of the chosen dancers for Le Corsaire were. She didn't look at anybody, but she could feel the eyes of all of them in her as she came closer to the papers with the results. She shouldn't be surprised with their attitudes, the gossip of her horrible audition went viral through all the academy and it was really bad, talking about how she always got the best roles — _always—_ in every dance presentation they had.

So, when she saw that Historia Reiss was going to be Medora and she didn't figure out in the main roles, Mikasa felt nothing. She'd stood just there, rereading her failure, watching how her dreams got a little further from her.

Blinking and noticing the dryness of her eyes, Mikasa moved to do her routine, making everybody startled at her suddenly motion and leaving the dancers with an opened mouth and a great amount of material to discuss between them.

But as the day went on, Mikasa's anger grew up. How was she so stupid to let things end this way? She wanted so hard to have the spot, and yet her mind deviated to something that wasn't even good for her: the monster that haunted her dreams didn't give her anything but unsatisfied lust and a confused mind in which a tragedy she had the disgrace to witness was less important than having him closer enough to feed her aching body. She reacted to her wrongness too late, and now a big opportunity was lost. After all, Mikasa considered every role as important as the previous one.

Her friends —Historia principally— avoided her, maybe imagining she was going to scream to them or make them feel guilty because of her own mistakes. She let them do, more because she didn't want to talk to anybody than because she was angry with them. Mikasa didn't care if they won against her. Actually, she was happy for them. After all, they got the main roles thanks to their effort and improvement.

While she was training, Hange called her to her office with a severe face. There, she told her all the mistakes she did in the audition, but there was one that got the most of Mikasa's attention.

"You didn't get the role not because of your shaky legs or your imbalance, but because of your expression. You looked bad, like you had weeks without sleeping, and your gestures were far away from Medora's character. The director didn't want a serious Medora lacking of spark, he wanted a girl that could portrait her with perfection, and you missed that in that moment."

Mikasa stood in front of her desk quietly, bending her face to hide her embarrassment. A long silence was done until Hange dropped a long _ah_ and put on her feet, walking closer to her favorite student, who hid even more in her red scarf.

"Now I'm gonna ask you something and I want you to look me in the eyes." The woman said, resting her hips at the edge of the desk and pressing her palms on the surface of it. In these moments, in which her glasses slipped a little bit from her septum, Mikasa didn't like Hange. She was a disaster of a person, but when it came to care about the dancers under her wing, she let the clown mask fall and show how much she estimated them. "Come on, Mikasa. Look at me."

Mikasa closed her eyes for a second, then she opened them slowly and raised her gaze, clenching her jaw.

"What happened in the club that night, after the competition?"

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, her lower lip trembling.

She saw everything so clear again: How _he_ dried up gout the life of that woman, delicious delirium was showing the sounds that came out of his deadly mouth as he pressed his body against the other one.

 _You're not giving me a reason to._

If she told Hange what she saw, he was going to have a reason to kill her, and even when she wanted him so bad it hurt, she wanted to live _more._ Of course, she didn't know this feel was caused also by him.

So she decided to tell her only one part of the truth.

"I was dancing with Marco and I saw that Eren was kissing a random girl he just met five minutes ago." She murmured, looking around to not face her coacher.

Seconds later, she heard a little giggle.

"No."

Mikasa looked at her coacher with anger.

"Yes!"

"Is it that the reason why you fucked up your audition?"

Mikasa opened her mouth twice, not knowing what to say. She didn't remember the last time she thought of Eren in that way. She even didn't remember thinking in him the last six weeks at all. Everything went downfall since she met the vampire.

But, of course, Hange didn't need to know.

"…Yes."

Hange crossed her arms, rolling her eyes.

"I can't believe I'm hearing this. Of all things, _this_ is what made you screw everything up? I thought we left behind our obsession for Eren long time ago."

Mikasa scratched her cheek in a shy gesture.

"I'm so sorry… It'll not happen again."

"No." Said Hange in a harder tone. "I want you to sleep, ok? And fuck Eren and no—what the hell, there's no way you're gonna ask for a main role again until you get over him, am I clear?"

Mikasa felt her body numb when she heard that.

 _"…What?"_

Hange adjusted her glasses.

"What you've heard. I'll not let you dance as a principal if you don't up once and for all. You decide: or Eren, or Opera Royal Ballet. Now go back to your training."

Before she exited the room, Hange added some other words.

"Your future is way too bright to let it be overshadowed by someone that can't even reach your ankles in talent."

The dancer swallowed, watching how Hange walked to the room in which the rest of the dancers were practicing, leaving her alone with her own thoughts.

As the days went on and after the severe conversation with Hange, Mikasa tried to focus her mind again in her real goal: to be the maximal spot of the Royal Opera House. More to her frustration and suffering, it was harder than she thought, and even when she practiced her ass off in class, when she arrived home her eyes always ended staring at the beginning of the forest behind her house, thinking in how she protected him when Hange asked about that night at the club.

Because yes, Mikasa accepted that she did it to protect his nature more than to protect herself, even when she had a great amount of self-defense growing in her those occasions she felt in danger when she saw him.

She protected a killer… and still it was for nothing.

The last class was ending when she heard Historia calling her that Friday in the afternoon. Mikasa ignored the voice and walked to the changing rooms. Historia entered when she was putting on her long brown skirt.

"Mikasa, hey."

"Hey." She answered without looking at the blonde girl, passing her white blouse through her head. It seemed like she wasn't affected with the same awkward silence that got blushed Historia.

"Did you… did you read my text?"

"What text?"

"The one that I sent you three days ago."

Mikasa frowned a little, thinking as she got her feet inside her long black boots.

"Oh, yeah, that one."

Historia flushed, embarrassed. Mikasa released her short, black hair and combed it in fast motions with her fingers. A little tuft fell, rebel, on her forehead.

"So…?"

Mikasa took her rucksack, sighing, and stood up to see her friend better.

"Why are you sorry?"

Historia stammered.

"Well, I guess is… I mean, it was…"

"Not your fault, obviously" Finished Mikasa, walking to the exit.

"But!" Insisted the blonde girl. "I know how much you wanted this role."

Mikasa stopped walking, but didn't turn to see her friend.

"I will always want to get the main roles." She took a moment to continue with a cold voice "But not this one."

 _Since the beginning,_ _I never really deserved it._

Historia heard a glimpse of amusement in Mikasa's words when she finally left the room.

"Thank you."

…

Mikasa came out from the dance academy with the idea of a boring weekend waiting for her already accepted. With no important roles or choreographies to dance or be obsessed during her free days, she was thinking in reading a book —or at least try—, as a way to clear her congested mind. She literally felt like she was left neither the goat nor the rope, and the fact that she was considering the fucking vampire one of those two made things even worse. She hated how normal was now to think about him, a supernatural creature, a demon that killed innocent people, but she also knew she was going to hate more to get over him, to forget that somewhere, a fantastic and handsome creature lived, hiding in the deepest and darkest places.

The pain through her chest was proof of it, and she still wanted to understand why it was so strong, why it felt so real in spite of the little she knew about him and how dangerous he was. Walking among the pedestrians that windy, cloudy afternoon, was just an expansion of her own depressive emotions. She looked at every face, wishing to see him in one of those walking bodies, trying to forget that he wasn't human.

She was just one block afar from the dance academy when she received a call from Historia.

 _Again?_

"What's going on now?" She whispered, focusing in her boots as she came closer to the pedestrian crossing, standing at the edge of the sidewalk to wait for the traffic light to turn red.

 _"I'm really sorry, I don't want to annoy you. Is just that there's something else I needed to tell you, something very important…"_

Mikasa counted the seconds to go through the crossing. Just three blocks and she would get to the bus stop.

"What is it?"

Historia hesitated to speak.

 _"Where… where are you? We can talk about it in a café, it would be better."_

"I'm at the corner of Titans Gym, waiting for the traffic light to change."

 _"Do you think we can have that conversation now?"_ Asked the girl on the other side of the call.

Mikasa was going to answer when two things happened at once.

First, the traffic light turned red, which meant she would finally walk through the street. Second, a motorcycle stood in her way, making her stop with a startle. She was about to scream when the biker took off his black helmet.

And the world stopped for her.

 _"Mikasa… Mikasa? Can you hear me? I'll go there, wait for me, please."_

Mikasa wasn't there. She was at the forest again, looking at the red eyes, dancing between the sensual waves of _his_ voice and admiring every little bit of his inhuman being as it was an ocean in the middle of the desert. Suddenly, she felt thirsty, and goosebumps attacked her extremities as the blood began to flow unhealthily slow. She was sure, her face looked as pale as _his_ in that moment.

And then she realized… He was a vampire, and he was also _there,_ in the middle of the street with a bloody motorcycle in a Friday afternoon.

The world started to spin again, but this time faster, and faster, and faster, and the only thing she could do was stare at the deep blue that were his eyes now, the long eyelashes that made his gaze more mesmerizing and enigmatic, windows of a world she craved to know. She couldn't understand how his lips looked so human, yet so unique and inviting, showing that his handsomeness was part of something a normal person wouldn't even wish to have.

Words weren't easy to come out from her mouth in that moment, yet she was so astonished she didn't need to order her mind to formulate them.

"…How?" She whispered, her hand still holding the cellphone against her left ear.

 _"How what? Mikasa, I'm getting closer."_

He straightened out, his black hair falling on his forehead and hiding his eyes from her. The motorcycle did a hoarse sound that promised adrenaline. She stared at his basic clothes: a long sleeved white shirt and black pants with the same military boots from before. So simple, and still, he looked better than a professional model or any of Mikasa's favorite dancers.

She ended her call, saving her cellphone inside her rucksack without taking off her eyes of him. She felt angry, she felt _furious._ She wished to be able to choke him, to punch him until he bled, to scream at him for leaving her alone and making her feel guiltier because of her insane decisions thanks to his manipulating memories in her mind, to point at him while she said, really out loud, what he was, what he did, and let the world know the monster he hid inside.

On the other hand, the truth was she was also relieved.

" _How?"_ She hissed, taking a step closer to him on the motorcycle. He raised his face, and she saw the same anxious expression that he had the last time they saw each other, just that this time there was a glimpse of enjoyment mixed with what it looked like resignation.

"Do you want answers?" He asked.

She closed her eyes two seconds, tasting the leisure his voice sent through her body.

"Yes."

He did a gesture with his head and offered her his helmet.

"Come with me."

She glared at him, doubt slipping among her dizzy thoughts.

"Am what if I say no?" She hissed in a sharp tone. "What if I decided I'll forget about this and never look back?"

"Then, I'll disappear. I won't be back, and you won't need to worry about me being a danger for you." He blinked slowly. "If it's that what you truly want."

Mikasa almost lost her balance.

 _What she truly wanted._

She looked at both sides of the street, delaying what she had to say.

"Then I…" When she put her eyes on him again, she saw tension in him, like he really cared for her decision. That was, definitively, what made her take action. "I'll go with you."

Without thinking twice, Mikasa put on the helmet he offered her, making a huge effort not to touch the tip of his long, stylized fingers. She raised her long skirt to sit behind him and inhaled deeply, her nervousness growing to new limits when his essence went through her nostrils. He didn't move, feeling her body adapt centimeter to centimeter to his hard back, and both let out a sigh of pure ecstasy when her hands embraced his torso, closing their eyes at the incredible and pleasant sensation of their bodies together.

Mikasa heard him growl and the next second, he was accelerating on the motorcycle, taking her to unknown places.

Not that far from where they were standing seconds ago, Historia observed the scene with a horrified face.

…

The vampire drove for around twenty minutes until both reached Sina City, a place that was smaller than Maria City, but also quieter. Mikasa enjoyed the trip, observing the trees that passed fast at their sides. When she got tired of the greenness around them, she stared at his back, her eyes devouring his discovered, pale nape and the little hair strings growing there. The undercut, without any doubt, made him sexier than he already was, and the cleanliness that spread his smell made her flush until she changed her gaze direction.

Once they were in Sina City, Mikasa finally could think in something that wasn't her arms hugging him from behind. The city was more attractive than Maria City, thanks to its little streets and stores that were perfect to film historical fiction movies. It was strange to go through its cobbled roads with a vampire biker, even more when her memories of the place were about her and her family or her, Armin and Eren. But no, it wasn't as weird as accepting the encounter in the first place.

Both stopped in front of a little restaurant between an inn and a bookstore —Armin's favorite bookstore, she remembered—. The vampire waited until she released him, not showing the disillusionment she felt when cold air replaced the part of her body in which both were touching. He gave the keys to the valet parking man and walked upstairs, waiting for her at the entrance as she tried to fix her hair. She glared at him, almost throwing him the helmet at the man waiting for it next to her, and then she followed the vampire.

Mikasa didn't think he was going to take her to a _restaurant._ Of all places, not a fucking restaurant. After all, he was a vampire and the idea of a vampire sitting as if nothing happened in the middle of a restaurant didn't fix in her head, but it seemed it would have to.

She looked one more time around her to remember every detail in case that everything ended the opposite way. No, Mikasa was not going to surrender easily, but she wasn't blind to not see the obvious danger she was getting herself into only to satisfy her strange desires.

Both entered the place and Mikasa didn't know what was she expecting, but definitively was not this.

The place was circular inside, tables were surrounding a dance floor at the center, in which three couples were dancing at the rhythm of jazz, played by six musicians at the back of the place on a small stage. Dim lights decorated each table, making feel each diner more intimate and apart from the other tables. Red, black and champagne curtains covered the walls, letting spaces in which huge artistic paintings were exposed. The roof was glass, and its mayor beauty were the stars at the top of the sky, its opaque brightness escaping through the branches of the climbing plants that covered the glass slightly. Some glasses were raised and the wind was coming in, moving the climbing plants that also hung on in some of them.

"It's beautiful" She murmured. A woman went to attend them, and once Mikasa focused in her she noticed, surprised, how the vampire talked to her, ignoring the smiles with double intentions she was sending him. Both sat in front of each other in one of the closest tables to the circular dance floor, which Mikasa stared for some seconds, admiring how she was able to see her own reflection in it. When she laid her eyes on him again, he was looking back at her with a mysterious expression.

"Here you have." Said the waitress, moving away. Mikasa grabbed one of the menus the woman left and started reading the names of the dishes, putting it deliberately between him and her eyes to not see him. She knew she looked very childish, but she couldn't think correctly with those addicting eyes taking all her attention and catching every little motion she did.

"I still can see your face."

Mikasa put down the menu harshly and frowned.

"How?"

He looked bored when he pointed at her chest.

"Your heart emits a constant wave that shows me every red corpuscle inside your body. It reveals your position."

"Is it… like a radar?"

"Yes."

"So…" Mikasa straightened slowly, watching the people around her and forgetting her own embarrassment. "You can… you can sense everybody's heart?"

"Yes."

Mikasa watched him with an opened mouth for a long moment.

"Then I was right." She narrowed her eyes, "You knew I was there the whole time." A slow deny. "You didn't care I saw you killing that woman."

"It was an opportunity I couldn't waste because of a witness."

"An opportunity you couldn't waste? You were killing that woman in the middle of a fucking club!" She hissed, angry. "How's that an opportunity?"

He seemed to be about rolling his eyes when the waitress appeared again.

"What would you like to eat?"

"Salad. No mayonnaise, no salt, no oil, no vinegar." Said Mikasa a little louder than she expected. The waitress almost couldn't hide her disgusted face, but Mikasa waited until she started writing to correct herself. "Joking. I want beef brisket and salad. Please bring some BBQ juice and mayonnaise."

The woman smiled so openly Mikasa thought it was going to break her face.

 _Done, little bitch._

When Mikasa looked at the vampire again, he was grinning at her.

"I would like the same." He said without taking off his gaze from Mikasa. "I also want a bottle of wine, the best you can offer us."

The waitress wrote the order with the same smile, but Mikasa knew she was frustrated —and furious— to see he didn't pay attention to her even once. She left and went back quickly with a jar of water, the bottle of wine, and four cups.

Finally alone, the vampire straightened and opened the bottle to serve wine in two cups, drinking of one of them as he offered her the other one. Mikasa looked at him through the crystal, admiring the way his shape changed slightly with the liquid between her eyes and him.

"I don't drink." She said, roughly. "I don't want to be vampire's dinner."

"Yet you're having a date with me."

"This is not a date." She murmured, putting the cup with a slow motion on the table.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Should I go, then?"

He spoke so casually, yet she felt her chest hardening, and a gesture of pain covered her face. Clenching her jaw, she pressed her left hand on the table.

 _"Don't you dare to."_

"I will not." He whispered just as she let out the words. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't lying, but I cannot accuse your heart for being so damn honest."

She took a deep breath.

"I don't understand."

"Your innocence makes you more receptive to things that happened in your environment, which makes you more interesting to me." He took another sip of his drink. "You aren't like the ones from your age."

"What makes you think that?"

"The fact that you're sitting here with me."

Mikasa swallowed.

"I repeat: is not like I can control it." She deviated her stare from his, admiring the musicians at the little stage with her hands put on her cheeks in a casual form, trying to hide the blush that covered them.

"Me neither."

 _Eh?_

Mikasa looked at him, confused.

"What did you say?"

His eyes narrowed, showing annoyance.

"I can't control it neither."

She stayed with a blank expression. "You're telling me… You feel what I feel too."

He nodded, closing his eyes with the motion.

"So… when you told me you didn't have a reason to kill me… Were you lying?

He opened his yes. "No. But it wasn't the whole truth."

Mikasa raised her chin.

"And what is the whole truth?"

"You are going to die in the hands of a vampire."

Mikasa's breath stopped. She got away from him until her back was completely pressed against the chair.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

This time, he at least showed pity.

"I'm not kidding, brat." He passed a hand through his hair, letting out a sigh. "It's your blood. Humans have different types, you know that, right?" She nodded. "Well, vampires don't see it that way. The better it smells, the better it tastes. The better it tastes, the stronger you get. A vampire that drinks a rich, healthy human blood gets stronger. Only one of four million people is born with that gift."

"How's that a gift?" She said, frowning. She shook her head. "How's this even possible? Why me? I mean—no offense, but I don't want to be anybody's food, not even…" She almost couldn't say the words. "Not even you."

"Maybe you, Mikasa Ackerman, don't want to be vampire's blood bag, but your body claims it, and is not something you can control." He drank the rest of his cup, putting it with a little more of pressure on the table again. "Thank whoever the fuck our creator is."

Mikasa was breathing heavily. The way he said it sounded so stupid and basic, yet so crudely true, she couldn't accept it. The shivers this thought sent through her body made her serve herself a cup of water. After drinking it all, she put a hand in her chin, thoughtful. Her eyes went to the vampire again, and he seemed to be enjoying the sight of the stars at the sky, just like she did two weeks ago at her backyard with Armin. _God,_ the vampire was _so_ handsome, so mysterious, she couldn't blame herself for being there with him.

"Is it that the reason why I went to see you every night?" She asked. His eyes went to her face, but he didn't change his pose. Something closer to anxiety showed in his gaze, but another thought crossed her mind. "Wait… In the club, when the woman spoke, I felt it too." Her eyes widened. "She was… she was like you, too."

His answer was like a caress to her body. _"Yes."_

In that moment, the waitress went back with the dishes. Mikasa thanked, but her mind was far away from there.

He was right, then. She remembered very clearly how she almost couldn't hold her legs in position, the eagerness and lust making her confused. When she heard the woman's voice, it was like hearing her favorite song: a melody that called her and prompted her to follow its rhythm, just that this rhythm was going to lead her to her death. On the other hand, she remembered feeling more anxious when she first heard his groans. So powerful, yet so simple the sounds that set on fire her whole existence. Yes, it was stronger, a greater impact.

He was not being completely honest, but this time, she let him did. Because whatever it was the truth, she knew, somehow, it was worse than dying in the hands of a vampire.

She started eating, noticing he was not touching his dish.

"So…?" She ventured, trying to take the recent news as calm as she could. "You're not eating."

"I don't eat." He said roughly. "I don't want to have human's dinner."

She grinned.

"Very funny." She took a bite from her beef with all the delicacy waiting in her bedroom at Maria City. Levi did a grimace when the juice of the meat poured on the tablecloth.

"You want to make me hate you more."

She raised her eyebrows.

"You hate me? Wow, didn't know that." She commented, sarcastic, and gave another bite to the meat.

"Yes. I do. Since I saw your scary ass at the bathroom, I've been having problems." His eyes almost threw thunders around the place.

"Talk about that with me, I'll understand perfectly."

"Yes, let's talk about how you lost a role thanks to your whim over me."

She dropped the beef on the dish with more violence than she wanted.

"It was an important one, you know." She narrowed her eyes. "How do you know about that?"

"Why do you care about the less important things?" He said, getting closer to her face all of a sudden. "Why don't you ask me about my diet? Or the fact that I'm still thinking about killing you in this exactly moment?"

Mikasa stopped chewing, paralyzed like a scared pet, and his hand appeared in her field of vision with a handkerchief. Slowly, he cleaned the juice around her mouth and chin, his eyes resting longer in her red lips. When he finished, he let his eyes slide through her face until they were looking at each other's orbs. Mikasa sensed it so strong again: the will to survive, together with the will to rip off his clothes and fuck him right there, on the table. It seemed she wasn't the only one, because he went back to his seat, his eyes never letting hers.

She took another piece of her beef, this time chewing it like a civilized human. He served another cup of wine and stared to the sky again, a long exhalation escaping from his mouth.

Mikasa closed her eyes until they hurt, trying to get rid of her dirty and insane thoughts. She hated how much this weird 'gift' she had made things more absurd than they already were.

Almost finishing her dish, Mikasa made another question.

"How is it possible for you to go out in the sunlight?" She asked. "And what about your eyes? Why are they… blue?"

He straightened again, putting his arms on the table after moving aside his plate, intact. She ignored the way his muscles were marked in the thin fabric of his shirt, but not that much, _just a little bit,_ she thought.

"I use an especial protector on my skin."

She move her head to one side.

"What?"

"Long story. Complicated enough to bore the hell out of you, my lady." He looked at the musicians. "As for my eyes… They are blue because I've been drinking animal's blood. When vampires drink blood from an animal, they have its old human color for some time, but it's really short."

The joke came to her. She couldn't resist herself.

"I thought they changed to a golden color—"

 _"No. Shut up, brat."_

She let out a little, almost unseen side smile.

"Sorry." She moved the rests of her salad with lazy motions. "I imagine they are black when you haven't eaten anything."

"Yes."

"The first time you went to my backyard, you were hungry." She said.

"It was not the first time." He stated in a smooth tone.

Mikasa looked again at him, admiring the way his thin eyebrows fit so well with his annoyed stare. She understood, finally, that this was his normal expression.

"If you keep telling me how much you want to kill me, I'll commit suicide, just to say fuck you to you and your vampire buddies. I'll burn my body inside an oven."

"You wouldn't do it."

"How are you so sure about it?"

"Unlike many humans, a good future is waiting for you, and you are very aware of that."

She moved her plate to one side, too.

"Still, you say I'm going to die in the hands of a vampire."

"Sometimes I managed to fuck on fate. Maybe you're the next one to help me repeat my feat."

"What does that mean?" She said quietly. "Are you going to… protect me?"

In that moment, she saw how tired he seemed to be.

"I'll try."

"But… but I never ran into a vampire. What if I manage to keep it that way?"

"You will not. Believe me, they are…" He looked anxious again. "They're _everywhere._ What if it weren't me the vampire at the bathroom that day in the club? What if it was another one, a mercilessly one? You wouldn't had survived that day, your coacher would had found no one, and you would had disappeared. _"_

She got what he said. Just remembering his horrible face as a vampire sent chills through her body and a desolate sense of emptiness, like if she was told the death was standing behind her. The idea wasn't far from the truth.

A woman started singing on the stage and Mikasa recognized the song.

"You are crying."

Mikasa blinked. A pair of tears rolled down, making her startled.

"I-I am…"

He looked at her without moving, maybe making up his mind, and then he stood up.

"Let's dance."

She stared at him, confused.

"What?"

He walked to her chair and extended his hand. "I'm inviting you to dance."

Another pair of tears rolled down her red cheeks, but she accepted slowly, putting her soft hand in his. When he closed his fingers around her dorsum, the familiar lustful sensation made her strip over her own feet and Mikasa had to shake her head to clear her sight. She held her breath, following him at the center of the dancefloor, his eyes never letting hers that were still tearing.

Mikasa almost didn't notice the subtle way both started to move with the same pace, but they were doing it. Their bodies got closer until he put his hand in her waist and she in his shoulder, and then it was obvious.

The height difference.

Mikasa giggled, her heart beating faster. She wiped her cheeks in a fast motion. "You're shorter than me."

He growled.

"Is a little obvious, don't you think?"

He made her spin around him while she thought how little she cared about his height… That was the least important thing talking about him, a vampire that could kill everybody in that restaurant if he wished to. As she danced, she found herself enjoying it more than her dances with Eren, Jean or Marco. The vampire was very capable, his moves as smooth and skilled as the ones from a professional dancer. It didn't matter how she motioned, he was already there, following her pace, and she never felt so privileged to dance with someone like this before.

When she didn't expect it from herself, she closed her eyes and let him do the rest, freeing her body and allowing him to take her in his arms. He lifted her, spinning with her on the dancefloor, his nose caressing the curve of her neck.

And then, the song ended. He put her again on the floor, slowly, and turned her to see her face. Both were very, very surprised, but she was the only one breathing hard.

A slower song went next to the other, the female voice singing with more emotion after seeing them dance beautifully, and he let both of his hands slip from her nape to her hips, prompting her to get closer to him until her cheek was pressed against his shoulder. Again, her neck was exposed to him. Only a little movement from his head and she was dead.

He stayed in the same pose, though, both moving in slow steps that calmed her rushing heart.

"It was this." He said, caressing her back with his fingers as he put his right palm over the position of her heart. "Your heart was beating so fast, so scared… But you stayed still, and when I smelled you… _God."_ His fingers tightened the fabric of her shirt. "Some of us have the ability to perceive the good of people. Was that, mixed with the smell of your blood, that stopped me from killing you. Your coacher doesn't know how much she helped you too. Even after you left the bathroom, I…" She felt him exhaling and she had to close her eyes at the warm feeling. "I followed you. The possibility to have your blood was there, huge, but I was fighting with myself."

Mikasa tried to stay serene.

"What happened with the other one… the other… vampire?" Mikasa observed the sky, something near to jealousy crippling her. "You seemed to be very into her."

He made her spin and when they faced each other again, he let both of her hands hold his, their faces so close their noses almost touched.

"That was… A mission."

"Huh?"

He looked annoyed, _again._

"She was an enemy I was hunting long time ago. That was the closure I was planning, excepting for you, of course."

"So… seducing her and drinking the hell out of her blood was your plan too?"

"Yes. That's one of the most used ways to kill a vampire between us. It's very complicated to explain, though."

Mikasa made silence, understanding. A minute later and when a new song started, she questioned him again.

"What happened with her body?"

"Do you remember the second night you saw me at the backyard?"

Mikasa didn't take long to answer.

"Yes."

"You saw how I left the place."

"You transformed into ashes." She said, blinking in an amazed way.

"That's called _black teleportation_ and it's… some cool shit almost no one can do."

Mikasa frowned.

"What? I'm lost."

He seemed to be… _embarrassed!_

"Some vampires… The most powerful, have this ability." He tried not to look at her, but he ended doing it anyway. "I'm one of them."

Mikasa nodded little by little.

"So, let me get this straight. Vampires, _real vampires,_ can sense the smell of human blood and, if it's good enough, they can gain power drinking it. When they drink blood, the color of their eyes change to red, but if they drink animal blood, the color turns into the one they used to have when they were humans, just that this blood is not as good as humans', am I right?"

"Yes."

"So, we also have to add the fact that vampires can expose themselves into the sunlight without being harmed thanks to a skin-protector —which you need to explain to me to understand it better—. Besides this, some vampires can transport from one place to another and also sense the good of the humans by its smell, but this can be only done by the strongest ones."

"Yes."

Mikasa stopped dancing for a second.

"You're part of the strongest ones."

He moved his head, weighing her words.

 _"…Yes."_

This time, she didn't ask anything, but it was more because of her sudden sense of respect. He was a powerful vampire, and she believed every word that came out of his mouth, she did it because she had seen him being powerful: the vampire he killed with so little effort, the way he desappeared in just two seconds until there was nothing and how he read her thoughts through her heartbeats. Mikasa wondered how it felt like, being this strong, and she let him guide her through the dancefloor as she enjoyed his presence, calming, serene as an ocean without waves, yet powerful and tight, a force that was barely contained within him.

"You said... You said you felt it too." She wanted to hide her face on his chest. Instead, Mikasa straightened. "When I speak to you, you feel the same emotions I do. Is that the reason you followed me to my house?"

He stopped dancing. With a finger, he moved the lock from her forehead to one side of her head. Mikasa opened her lips, but didn't move. It was the second time he touched her hair.

"Imagine being always told that mermaids exist, but there are so few that the possibility to see one is almost impossible. Then, when you least expect it, you run into one, and it's so beautiful and unique, you want to see it again and never stop, even when is forbidden..." His hands went to the sides of her rib cage and his voice transformed in a whisper. "Even when is dangerous and it burns you inside..." He let his lips get closer to her right ear, a sow murmur that fell heavy in Mikasa's belly. "Even when you know you cannot say: _She is mine._ " And just like that, he put space between them, again coldness covering both of them. "Tell me, Mikasa, what would you do?"

She almost couldn't answer. Her body felt numb, without energies, and the fire that could turn it on was just some steps from her. So she fought with the words.

"I would stay by the mermaid's side."

He let out a side smile that took her breath away.

"That's what I decided to do, too."

...

They were back at Maria City, back to her house. Mikasa grabbed the plastic bag with the beef brisket he left intact and walked towards the front door of the house, trying not to stare back at the vampire that looked like a human on his motorcycle.

As she was opening the door, a question, the most important one, went to her head.

She called him in a whisper, knowing he was going to hear her. "Vampire…"

"Yes?" Suddenly, he was behind her.

She didn't turn around.

"One last question."

Long silence.

"Alright."

She opened slowly the front door.

"What's your name?"

That was it. The last line that divided their worlds. A single word that was going to change everything Mikasa knew. Once she heard his name, her brain was going to catalog him as an indispensable part of her life and she was going to agree with it.

"I am Levi."

That was the way she started to fall in love with a vampire.

* * *

 _ **EDITED ON: 12-24-17**_

 **xx**

 **La que tals.**


	5. Fear Hunting

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **xx**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki No Kyojin**_

* * *

" _You're going to die in the hands of a vampire."_

 _I will not,_ thought Mikasa, making her stretches with more violence than she needed. She was winning her classmates' attention, though she wasn't even aware of it.

 _I'll become the best dancer of this century, I'll be the next Prima Ballerina Assoluta before I kick the fucking bucket._

She didn't care what her blood meant, or the fact that _Levi_ wasn't the only vampire out there. Mikasa lived a perfect life since she was born, and she was not going to let that perfection escape from her hands.

" _Your body claims it."_

 _No. My body claims ballet, just that._ But a single thought of his eyes, or the memory of his fingers tightening in her back was enough to make her lose her balance, and Hange's glares were also enough to make her be angrier than ever with herself. _I'd better forget our weird conversation,_ nevertheless, she wished every night to see his shape between the trees so she could ask him a hundred questions and more.

 _"Why don't you ask about my diet? Or the fact that I'm still thinking about killing you in this exactly moment?"_

 _He is still dangerous,_ her brain said. _He also feels what you feel,_ her body said.

 _"_ MIKASA!" Her mother said.

The girl blinked, watching around her. She was at the dinner table with her parents, a vampire's movie streaming on the television. Mikasa looked at her dish, noticing her almost untouched food. Then, after some seconds of pure hesitation, she moved her eyes to her mother that was chewing her dinner with harsh moves as she returned her gaze to Mikasa.

"Then? Are you gonna answer or not?" Her voice was sharp, which meant she was angry.

It was hard to make angry Mikasa's mother. After all, she was kind of a perfect daughter, and her parents didn't have any critic about her behavior.

Mikasa looked at her dad, noticing how he just continued eating like her mother wasn't about to scream at her. She cleared her throat, scratching her left arm with undisguised dismissal.

"Sorry, mom… _What?"_

The woman almost laughed sarcastically.

"I asked you where you were the last Friday. Why did you arrive home so late? We waited three days for your explanation but I think it's time to clear yourself, don't you think?"

Mikasa got a little away from the table, watching her interlaced fingers on her lap. Lying to her parents, that was what she had been doing since almost two months ago. Still, it was hard to do it, and she felt the space between them getting wider and wider, trustiness flying away like leaves falling from the trees, just as it was happening those days with the winter coming.

"I was with some friends…"

"No. You weren't."

"How do you know?"

Her mom crossed her arms.

"All of them were hanging out in Eren's house that afternoon."

Mikasa's eyes widened for one second before her face went back to a bored expression.

"I was talking about my friends from… Sina City."

Her dad frowned, confused.

"You have friends in Sina City?"

"Yes" her affirmation sounded more like a question. "Armin's favorite bookstore, remember? There's a girl that is my friend too, Mina…"

A blow was heard on the table.

"You were in Sina City _without telling us!"_ Screamed her mother, unbelief mixed with fury in her face. "Mikasa Ackerman, you're... _you're grounded!?"_ She didn't want to do a smirk, but the way her mother said the words, so unsure, made the situation laughably awkward.

Even with this and hours later, Mikasa went to her bedroom with an empty stomach and the same disturbing thoughts that were haunting her the last days.

" _You will not be safe."_

…

 _Tuesday._

 _Wednesday._

 _Thursday._

 _Friday._

 _Saturday._

The days passed and Mikasa thanked the vampire's absence. After she had got the conversation with him, her nights, somehow, started to get normal. She was surprised when she woke up and it was actually late to her first class two days ago. Mikasa took a shower, dressed in no time and ran to the academy with an almost unseen crazy smile in her face.

She was smiling because she was fucking late, which meant she overslept.

But then, happiness started to disappear when she remember her 'fate'. Being on her own, without _his_ presence making her thoughts dizzier than they had been since that crazy night at the club, was helpful to see the clear danger that was his kind.

Learning new dance steps in the academy, she made a mental list. Vampires could sense a human's presence even if this human was hiding from them. They could also smell blood's essence and decide if a human was good enough to be killed or not, if their blood was delicious enough to make them stronger. They had the ability to mingle between humans, as she saw Levi doing that day at the club and at the restaurant.

 _Levi._ Mikasa forgot how many times she shook her head those days, trying to not go back to his name. That Saturday, running through Maria City streets to get some adrenaline on her body, music wasn't enough to get out _vampires_ from her head.

He said he was going to protect her, but she didn't sense him since the night he told her his name.

 _Where are you? I need you, I'm scared…_

She felt paranoiac, watching every human's behavior she crossed with to figure out they weren't vampires hunting her blood. She hated how her mind stopped trusting in her body's strength, how she even feared her heartbeats, thinking they were going to betray her, to call vampires' attention towards her.

 _Is not enough._ Her mind said. _You are too weak._ Her legs were burning with the demand she made to keep running.

 _You're going to die in the hands of a vampire._

Mikasa's legs succumbed to fatigue. She stopped at the middle of a square, trees moving around her, kids screaming and playing, kites flying in the sky, soap bubbles creating thanks to a mother's breath that wanted her baby to smile. Not that far from where she was, traffic lights changed and cars came and went, humans crossed the streets and ads were displaying on the screens of the buildings, their noises reaching her ears and telling her, like if it was a subliminal message: _You're not safe. You're not safe. You're not…_

 _Safe._

And she turned, watching every living being and discovering how scared she was, how alone she felt there, how fast her heart was beating and how this didn't make her breath faster, drowning her, closing her in her own disturbed mind.

 _Is this… a panic attack?_

She ran back to home.

...

"How do I fight a vampire?"

That was her greeting the night Levi finally came back to her backyard. He didn't know how relieved she was to see him again, how much she wanted to hug him and screamed to him her worries. And because he didn't know, he had let out a short sigh and had sat on the grass, doing a grimace of disgust.

"Next time I come, bring me a fucking rug."

Next time he came, she brought the fucking rug, sat in front of him, and asked the same.

"How do I fight a vampire?"

He had looked at her with pure annoyance.

"It's going to rain soon."

His words had been true, and Mikasa had to run back to her room, watching with anger and frustration the rain falling on him, that had slowly retroceded to disappear between the pines. She'd sat in front of the window, cleaning every single horrified tear that ran down her cheeks, wishing she could take out the answers directly from his brain.

She had spent those nights having long conversations about the most untouched topics by people, dazzled by the infinite knowledge he seemed to possess.

When she wasn't scared of vampires in general, Mikasa learnt a little more about his personality.

Levi wasn't a man of words, she was sure since the beginning. He was wise, but meager, and his explanations were hard for her to understand, but when she did, she got how successful his opinion was. Another thing Mikasa watched about him was his obsession with cleanliness. He was continuously avoiding dirt, and his clothes were always on point. Once Mikasa finished dancing on the backyard, she tended to go to her house and look for a towel to wipe her sweat, thinking he might not like it.

"I don't mind sweat, brat." He had told her the third day she went for a towel on a row. Still, she kept looking for the towel.

She also noticed that he dressed very well all the time, and she came to the conclusion that he had money, at least enough to wear different clothes daily and never repeat any of them. The only thing she saw him wearing often were his military boots. Overall, he looked like a rich man, and this made curiosity explode in Mikasa's head all the time.

But he never touched her again, and Mikasa felt disappointment each time he left at the dawn without caressing her at least once. When he arrived, Mikasa hoped to see him sitting closer than before, but he always sat on the same spot of the backyard, hidden enough to transform in ashes in case that someone came. One day, though, Mikasa caught him observing her neck, and thirst in his expression was enough for her to understand.

"The blood you're drinking isn't enough." She'd said, her heart beating fast.

He had blinked, getting back to his feet. He had let out a long sigh and moving his eyes far from her, a severe expression covering his handsome face.

"It'll never be." He'd answered, letting himself free for a moment and resting his elbows on his knees with a tired countenance. "Right now, watching you is like watching a supernova hundreds and hundreds of times. Every heartbeat is an explosion and every red blood cell is a neutron." He made a long silence, his eyes narrowing with a hidden emotion. "Still, if I focus on the outer you, it's even harder."

Mikasa'd flushed by his words, remembering what she felt when she were with him that Friday afternoon at the restaurant.

But one thing was certain. When Levi left, her anxiety towards vampires came back, and one night she was not strong enough to keep herself for asking him for the third time the same question:

"How do I fight a vampire?"

He hadn't even sat on his rug when she made the question, and the vampire almost rolled his eyes at her insistence.

"Again? I'll stop coming here if you keep asking."

Mikasa raised her eyes to his, noticing that tonight was the first time since two weeks ago that his orbs were black.

He was part of her life now, and desperation was craving inside of her, worry for the ones she loved, for her own life.

"Please!" She screamed, way too distressed to control her tone. She exhaled, trying to calm herself. "I didn't tell you this, but I had a panic attack not long ago." She said, her voice full of anxiety. Levi's expression changed to a worried one. "I'm scared, not of you, but of the others." She got a little closer to him until she was able to grab one of the sleeves of his black shirt. "Please, tell me. How do I fight a vampire?"

Silence. Between the human Mikasa and the vampire Levi, silence was always an important part of their conversations. He put a hand on her left cheek, making her close her eyes at the longed touch. When she opened them again, there was concern in him.

"It's almost impossible for you to fight a vampire in the present." Mikasa's breath got caught at her throat by his words. "We have found a way to go out in the sunlight, we have found a way to fight samgue debolezza, the blood weakness. We even learnt how to resist the pain silver cause us." He denied. "The only way to fight a vampire is being as strong as one."

Mikasa was so shocked she fell, sitting on the wet grass, her mind going to unknown ifs. _What if they find me? What if they try to kill my family? What if they try to kill Eren?_

"What about my family and friends?" A hand went to her mouth. "How do I protect them?"

He didn't answer. "I'm sorry."

"No." She hissed. "Don't." _This is my fault. I should have forgot what I saw. I should have let it go._

But Mikasa had a gifted blood and even if she didn't want to, her life was going to be pulled toward vampires, just like it did with Levi.

"So this is it?" She said, embracing herself, feeling suddenly cold. "Do I have to accept this fate?"

Levi looked angry when he grabbed her hand and put it on his chest.

"You'll live. Gifted humans like you didn't have the same possibilities because they were alone. You aren't." _You have me._ He didn't say it, but it was like he did, she heard the words clearly in her mind. Mikasa stared at his dark eyes, swallowing.

Then, without controlling it, she was letting her body get closer to him. Levi saw what she was doing and tensed, caution making him quieter than before.

He didn't stop her because he wanted it too, he wanted to feel her arms around his neck, just like it was happening in that instant.

Once they were together, Levi hid his face on her neck. Mikasa almost startled, but her body relaxed when his hand caressed her back, hugging her with a very careful motion.

They were hugging, but Mikasa felt like she was doing something deeper than that, because her body felt on fire, pure fire, and the only thing she wanted him to do was... was...

She put her hands on his shoulders, prompting him to get away from her. He did, but there was an indescribable emotion in his face, and she knew this time what was it.

"I got it. I make you weak." Mikasa murmured, watching how his face outlined in a painful expression mixed with hatred.

 _You hate me? Wow, didn't know that._

 _Yes, I do._

"A vampire who has a weakness for a human..." She let the words escape like whispers from her mouth. "You could... you could have killed me long time ago and be stronger with my blood, yet I'm still here... Why? Why do you want to protect me so much? Why don't you kill me right now? Why don't you... drink my blood?" This last one wasn't a rhetoric question, and that scared her.

He frowned and closed his eyes, pure desperation showing in his face.

"I've wondered the same all this time, human." He opened his eyes with resolution. "But I won't fight it."

 _I won't neither._ She thought, and she hoped he could understand her answer through her heartbeats.

Somehow, there was a new level for their relationship. She let her body fall on the grass and her head turn over his, admiring the muscles of his thick neck. Then, she looked at the stars in the sky, knowing that soon the sun was going to rise, powerful, shiny, and she'll have to say goodbye to her friend Levi, the vampire, a creature that made her body get crazy.

"Tell me more about your kind."

He was also resting like her on the grass, and she understood he didn't care about getting filthy if it was necessary. This made her heart melt.

Both sighed, looking at the stars, and then, he started talking about vampires, a topic he'd jumped the last days on purpose. It was impossible to not talk about it, though, and she knew he was doing it just to protect her.

 _He really cares about me._

"The story says all started in Babylon three thousand years ago. A woman called Ymir made a pact with the devil to bring her lover, a man that died in the war, back to life. The devil did as she asked, though the price was to drink human blood the rest of her days once she had her man by her side again. She thought it was worth it, but she was deceived by her own desires. When she met with her lover, she felt so much thirst of blood that she bit him and dried his body out, killing him in the process." Mikasa shivered, imagining everything way too clear. "The woman went insane, holding his corpse against her body when she discovered there _was no more blood in it._ Overwhelmed by the thirst of blood, she hid in the darkness and started to kill humans, drinking their bloods. She eventually learnt how to spread the curse, decades and decades passing until she killed the younger sister of a powerful warrior from Europe. Seeking vengeance, he did extensive research, following the testimonies of families that suffered the same lost than him." He took a deep breath, blinking like everything was happening in front of his eyes and he was looking for a way to continue the story. "The warrior hunted them down, creating his reputation until his heroic stories reached Ymir's ears. But it was too late. When she tried to escape, he found her, and he put a silver stack on her heart, burning her with fire until there was nothing left."

He turned to see Mikasa.

"You may think this was the end, and this is what everybody, the warrior included, thought. Ymir died, but she left creatures of her kind, civilizations, clans, all of them conformed by vampires. The warrior got his vengeance, but he died without killing all of them."

"What was the name of the warrior?"

"No one knows. It's a mystery."

"I thought vampires came from Rumania."

" _Strigoi_ , that bitch was the one that brought back the rumors to society."

Mikasa moved, uncomfortable at the sudden change of his tone.

"Hey... "

"Mmm?"

"How old... how old are you?"

He let out a little laugh and moved his thick arms to put them under his head.

"Old enough to be your grand grand grand grand grandfather."

"But you seem to be in your early thirties."

"And you in your early twenties."

She frowned, thinking. In fact, she believed he was three or four hundred years old. It was fascinating, she could only imagine him being witness of lots of amazing success.

"It isn't that great. When you live so much, it's easier to get bored of everything. You've seen it all, yet the bad stays easier than the good, and when you blink, your pure existence is full of disgrace." His face was tensed, different memories coming through every little expression he did.

Mikasa's mouth felt dry when she spoke again.

"Have you thought of ending your life?"

She didn't mean to sound bad, her question was based in his own words. Still, her chest pained when she said them, like if it was repeating _no no no_ at the mere appointment.

"Thousands of times." He let out a side smile. "But it is never an option. I'm a monster, and monsters deserve the worst. If devil exists, don't you think god exists too? Ending my life would be accepting my punishment and forgetting my people, and I'm still punishing the ones that harmed me."

Mikasa never thought about the devil or god when it came to Levi. He was right, he was a dangerous creature, born by the desire of a sole woman ages ago. The devil was within his actions, wanted or not, and he knew what came to those that were bad in this world.

She felt numb, remembering his beast form, his long fangs and harsh grab and the way his body was undone in small pieces of ash that flew with the wind. She tried to go to other directions.

"You're not alone, you have people."

"I don't."

Mikasa looked confused.

"But you said..."

"They're dead."

She saw his reluctance to speak, so she let the topic rest. A yawning escaped from her mouth, and the first sound of a bird reached her ears.

"The sun's getting up." He whispered, sitting. "I'm unprotected today."

She sat too. "Which means?"

"Which means I'll be nothing if I don't go right now."

He stood up and offered her a hand, helping her to stand too. His black eyes went to her neck again, but he cleared her throat, changing his gaze to the trees behind her. Mikasa smiled a little and put a lock of hair behind her ear, blushing. Every time he looked at her neck, she received the action as a flattery.

"I told you that to fight a vampire, you need to be as strong as one." Mikasa eyes widened at his words. He continued. "You may not be the warrior that killed Ymir, but you're determined, and determination is the main weapon of the brave." And Mikasa had proved to be brave since she met him. "So... Do you want to learn to defend yourself?"

Mikasa didn't need to think twice. She nodded hurriedly, showing her resolution.

Levi's eyes shined like she just set him on fire.

"That's it. I'll be here tomorrow at the same hour. Bring water and comfy clothes."

Then, he let his fingers caress the edge of her nose. That was new and she liked it. "Go."

Mikasa took the rug and ran back to her house, a stupid smile on her lips. She closed the backdoor and watched through the window, but she was sure, he was already gone.

* * *

 **Hope you liked it! Next chapter comes with more action (pinky promise).**

 **La que tals.**


	6. Apprentice's blood

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **x**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin.**_

* * *

Every late night she woke up to meet with him among the woods, Mikasa saw more leaves on the ground, yellows, oranges and red ones, all of them mixing and creating a magic, almost delicious picture to the eye. She'd seen him as always, waiting for her. One day sitting in a thick branch, the next, resting at the feet of a tree with closed eyes, his face portraying an apparent armistice with the disastrous world he'd seen transforming during his long, supernatural life.

Her days were longer and short, magical and strangely normal. She danced with her typical grace and delicacy, and she punched the air merciless as he said, following his steps, imitating his lethal motions as she voluntarily ignored the sharp line of his regal jaw, the sensual frowning of his eyebrows or his straight, almost perfect nose. She drank of his wise words, took them as little valuable jewelries and hid them inside her heart. He wasn't a bad teacher, after all, and she also enjoyed him in his casual mood: an enchanting mixture between human and vampire, a man that was stronger than a mortal but looked like a simple person. Mikasa found in him the male, mature company that her friends couldn't afford. Levi had talked about the most curious things to her, explaining her with his confusing manners how his world worked.

 _"As you already know, some of us have special abilities. It isn't for free: they usually take a great amount of energy from our bodies. It can make us stronger, but also hungrier. Always remember that in case you run into one of us."_

She remembered the first time he talked about this, his blue eyes going darker and darker during her training as he transformed into ashes again and again around Mikasa, teasing her and playing with her. He was behind, then he wasn't. He was eight meters afar, then he was next to her. Mikasa had ended with her buttocks hurting and her hands swollen, all because of the jump scares that made her strip over thanks to his random appearances. It wasn't too long until she finally adapted to his odd power, and Mikasa found herself letting out a wry smile when she finally detected Levi's position when he used his ability. He was right, he constantly ended with his eyes being a deep, ghastly black and moving like his body weighed tons after those trainings.

The days passed and her muscles pained with the effort she put on them. She started to eat more, hunger attacking her stomach, the never ending struggle of learning to fight at night and learning new dance genres at day burning her energies faster than fire. She'd felt way too tired sometimes, unable to get out of her bed, but the fear for her family's sake was bigger than her fatigue, and the stranger, smooth lust in her belly for him betrayed her, prompting her to meet him. " _You must close your emotions when you're next to a vampire",_ he'd said with a livid tone in one of their several encounters, " _Humans are easy to drag to a vampire. You? You're even easier."_ How right he was, she couldn't fight her lust for him, nearly restraining herself when she was alone. Still, Mikasa showed coldness when she was training with him and she obligated her body to stay calm, her pulse to go normal, and her desire to quit the insistence. On the other hand, Mikasa knew she wasn't the only one struggling, and Levi's hungry eyes were the proof. She'd felt it more than once, his obscure aura creeping towards her, desiring the whole of hers. But then again, he didn't touch her once more in that way, and when their skin collapsed together, it was only in the most necessary moments, just as when he went with a new lesson to her.

Mikasa had seen him taking out of his left boot a dagger, which was wrapped in leather. His bored eyes had fell on her face as he released the knife carefully, his fingers taking off the leather without touching the sharp parts.

" _It's made of silver. It may not kill us, but it's fucking painful when it touches us. Silver cannot make us flee or scream like in those shitty movies. Silver just… it's just very painful when it's well used, which means..."_ He whirled the dagger between his snowy, pale fingers, and Mikasa stupidly got worried about them, thinking he was going to cut himself with the knife, that he was going to burn with it. _"You'll likely get to kill one. But if not…"_ His eyes flashed with warning. _"You'll stop the vampire, but not for much time. So, you must get to use it correctly to have a greater possibility to finish him."_

She'd never forget the way his hands guided her body to make the perfect motion, how his strong arms felt against her waist every time she went too ahead with her self-exigency. The mode he moved his limbs against hers wasn't gross or sensual. She felt the esteem in every motion, not wanting to surpass the quiet intimacy both had created beneath the eyes of the moon and stars. When she went to sleep, her lips stretched in an artless smile and her eyes closed with the security that only his dark presence would afford to her dreams, in which horror transformed in beautiful images that swam in her mind and made her woke up every morning with flushed cheeks and a sweaty body.

Besides his natural expression —an apparently irritated one— Mikasa was too adapted to his different moods already. Annoyed when he drank animal blood but genuinely content inside; severe when he drank human blood —which he hadn't done since long time ago—; bad tempered when he didn't drink anything at all. As the days transformed in weeks, and the weeks in months, and the autumn in winter, Mikasa learnt how to treat him based on his thirst. Sarcastic when he drank animal blood, silently when he was thirsty. She wondered how she would act in front of him when he drank human blood again, but she also hoped he didn't do it at all, not because she considered it bad, but because she discovered she didn't like the idea of him drinking somebody else's blood. She thought of this when she saw Historia practicing with Eren Le Corsaire. The way she moved around Eren wasn't the problem. It was her long, delicate and swan-like exposed neck. Mikasa found herself clenching her fists until her nails buried in her skin as she watched the perfect curve of her pale nape and the sensual knob of her pulsing jugular, the sweet blood that ran under that fine hide.

She escaped of the place and hid, like she always did, inside the bathroom. This time she wasn't thinking of Eren kissing a random girl. She thought of Levi and his long, inhuman fangs... into other woman's neck, a neck as perfect and inciter as Historia's.

The idea almost made her scream.

And although she was used to his expressions, his words and his gentle touch, Mikasa was also starting to miss his beastly side, the one that couldn't hide his attraction for her.

She didn't tell him this, preferring to stay quiet as always, but he noticed, and he made her be aware of that in the most unexpected way.

One snowy night, Mikasa still went to see him, ignoring the ground that looked like a white, cold ocean. Fighting with all her strength in a hand-to-hand combat against him, Mikasa was so jealous, so worried, so altered by the images of him drinking another's blood, of him touching someone else the way he did with her, that she didn't see the quick change of color in his eyes.

Levi stopped, putting space between them with shocked eyes. He denied, looking at her with unbelievable eyes, and signaled her with his index. His voice was a growl, a dark tone that sounded guttural.

"You have to control your body _now."_

Mikasa walked backwards, feeling suddenly guilty. "I'm sorry…"

Levi exhaled, his fingers holding the septum of his nose.

"Do you even know what your emotions are doing?"

She denied slowly, blushing.

"They're revealing your fucking position to powerful vampires within twenty mile radius. It's like you're screaming 'Come here, I've got blood to share.'"

"I am not doing anything."

"Of course you are."

She crossed her arms. "Enlighten me."

He imitated her pose. "You are angry because I'm not threating you the way you want."

Mikasa swallowed.

"How do you know that is what I want?"

"I'm telling you, that's what your fucking blood is screaming, brat."

Mikasa felt so red, so ashamed, that she wasn't capable of staying any longer.

"I'll go."

She thought he was going to stay behind, preferring to let her go. Instead, as she walked through the darkness towards the back of her house, fast ashes appeared in front of her until Levi's body was just inches afar from her face. Her heart stopped for a second at his sudden appearance, and her pose changed to a defensive one, all the knowledge given by Levi pouring through her skin.

Levi's expression was resilient when he materialized. He noticed her pose, bit chose not to say anything.

"Let's talk." He supported his back on a tree trunk. Smoky breath went out of his mouth when he spoke again. "I'm listening."

Mikasa clenched her fists at her sides.

"What do you want to listen?"

"Tell me why your hormones have been so crazy these days." He stared at her for a long moment, boredom showing at its best. "I'm waiting."

Mikasa hid her face in her red scarf.

"It's stupid."

"As stupid as it is for you, it had obligated me to drink more blood than necessary these days."

"Has it been human?"

He grimaced, confused by the turn of her words.

"What?"

She knew that he hadn't drunk human blood, but she still felt the bitter taste of jealousy in her chest, the insecurity that his mysterious attitude always brought to her heart. She noticed, uncomfortable, that her feelings for him were bigger now. Three months ago, before she started to see him as someone important in her life, before his voice was a common sound in her ears or before she memorized his peculiar face or his venous, coarse hands, she wouldn't have cared. Now was different, and the things he told her at that Sina City's restaurant seemed to fade with every quiet deviation he did when Mikasa tried to ask about his life during his long trainings, always putting a wall between them that brought Mikasa down.

"The blood you've been drinking. Has it been… human?"

Levi didn't blink, nor move.

"You know I've only drank animal blood since months ago." He narrowed his eyes, weighing her words for three seconds. Then he gaped, completely surprised. "So that's it?" He quickly asked. "You're jealous?"

Mikasa felt exposed. Her eyebrows went together and her lips turned down, showing he was just right.

Levi took a step closer to her. "Why?" mumbled.

She didn't answer.

Unexpectedly, he went so close her chest and his were touching. His smooth voice trembled in her ears. "Are you jealous because I haven't touched you? Is it that?"

Mikasa felt so red and her body so numb, like she was in a nightmare in which she couldn't control her body that the only thing she could do was sighing a _yes._

"Do you want to know what would happen if I…?" His eyes seemed to darken. "If I try to touch you like _you_ want?"

She raised her gaze, his voice alarming her.

"I would lose control, I'd drink from your blood, and I'd not stop until there's not a drop of it." He took a step back. His expression was severe. "Even if I were strong enough to stop, you'd still get poisoned, and the possibility of surviving is very, very small."

Her voice was a murmur. "And what if I survive?"

He diverted his eyes to the ground. "Your body will die slowly. Vampire venom doesn't have a cure. The only option is becoming one."

Mikasa denied, her eyes wide. Her heartbeats went slower, resembling the chills that run through her body.

 _You don't want this… Do you?_

"Don't even think about it, Mikasa." He scolded her. When he said her name in that way, she felt as spoiled as a child. "It won't happen." Snow started to fall when he walked away from her. "Now go back home."

...

La Corsaire was a success. Eren and Historia looked so well together that they were invited to different parties and special events, sponsors appearing like drops of rain. Mikasa waited for the jealous feeling to come and hit her, but the only thing she felt was her competitiveness grow a little. Seeing Eren closer to other girls didn't affect her like it did before, and she didn't even care anymore. Instead, she was happy when the director announced a special performance for an important charity party that was held every December at the most luxurious hotel of the city.

That same night, as she fought with Levi again, Mikasa told him about the good news. He seemed genuinely happy for her too. Mikasa was using the silver dagger he gave her, and Levi was using nothing. Slowly, but without hesitating, Mikasa tried to win. The only thing she needed to do was cutting him, it didn't matter how superficial the wound were.

It didn't matter because he was just so fast to even attempt to cut him. Mikasa always ended sweaty and with her body shaking, exhausted after all the effort she had to do to at least to punch him. Sometimes he hit her, but never hard enough to make her bleed. Still, she was used to seeing bruises in her legs or arms, and it was getting harder to hide them from her friends and family. He knew she had to preserve her skin perfect, not a single scar in it, so he tried to only thrust her or avoid her hits when they fought.

Mikasa had clear he wasn't putting all his strength to fight her. She had seen him reacting to her motions like he was avoiding a mosquito annoying his sight, but he never did a comment about it, never dragged her down because of her slowness or fragility.

Sometimes, during those combats, he asked things about her. Her favorite food — _I like fish—,_ her favorite moment of the day — _right now it's the morning. The sun looks pretty at my window—,_ her favorite animal — _I like huskies—._

That night, however, Mikasa was the one that questioned him first, her breath making a white cloud around her thanks to the cold night. He seemed off, distracted, worried about something beyond her understanding. Mikasa felt bad as the question started to form in her mind, readying it for the perfect moment to say it. She was also tired of his silence, tired of the wall he insisted in holding between them.

She threw her left fist as fast as she could to his chest and the knife in her right to his abdomen, evading the schuss hand that he sent to her right thigh to make her fall. He moved his torso, escaping easily from her fist, and he grabbed her right hand with his, long cold fingers holding her knuckles just half an inch from the silver knife she had. He spinned her, his hard chest touching her warm back and then, just like that, she'd lost again. Her jugular was technically exposed to him, even with all the clothes she was using to not freeze outside, and her own arm was around her neck. If he wanted to, he could have used her limb to choke her.

She inhaled deeply three times, sweat running down her back, between her breasts and in her foreheads.

He pushed her away from him.

"Again."

They were like that for around an hour when she finally, without stopping fighting, spoke to him.

"Were you a human or did you born like a vampire?"

He was going to raise his arms to put them in a fight position when her words reached him, making him glare at her with a curious expression.

"Why are you asking that?"

"Why not?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he prompted her to attack. She thought he was going to stay quiet, but then his voice was heard again.

"I was born human."

Mikasa kept moving, her eyes trying to follow his fast movements.

"Were you from a big family?"

He smirked. "I only had my mother." He stopped a sidekick and Mikasa stepped back, breathing fast.

"How was she?"

"I can't remember her face." He said as she attacked him once more. "She was a whore, a famous one." His voice was steady, like he was just taking a walk. "But she fell in love with a vampire, and that vampire wasn't alone. His lover killed her."

"Did that vampire... Transform you?"

"No. She didn't know I existed. My uncle raised me until I was old enough to live by my own."

Her next question went a little insecure.

"And then?"

Levi sighed, putting space between them. He was uncomfortable, but she wasn't sure it was because of her questions.

"And then Zackly found me."

"Who is Zackly?"

Again, he took long to answer. Mikasa shook her head and approached him, motioning the dagger towards him as fast as she could. Levi let her move and she slowly gained confidence again, her sharp strikes transforming in a deathly dance.

This was her favorite part of fighting against him. When she reached her maximum, her body flowing and flashing with his, Mikasa felt, somehow, that she belonged to his side.

But he finished it, averting her hand so fast that the dagger flew until it got stacked in a tree trunk.

Mikasa took three steps back, her lungs feeling on fire.

She had lost again.

When she looked at Levi again, he was expressionless.

"Zackly transformed me." His eyes darkened. It reminded her of that late night he tried to scare her. Levi turned and stood motionless, not even breathing. "You see, he was my father."

Mikasa gasped.

"Your father was a... Vampire? But you told me you were human when you—"

"I was human, but I had the venom in my blood. _His venom._ " When he turned to see her again, his face resembled one of a monster.

His fangs were there, showing between his lips. His eyes were completely black and his skin was paler, almost purple-like. Within his apparently calm body, Mikasa could perfectly imagine a hell developing. Her face was stiff, she couldn't create any thought, any word.

"There are only two ways to become a vampire." Dark amusement slipped through his face. "I drink your blood, you drink mine. You drink my blood, I drink yours. Your blood must be mixed with mine and mine with yours, and then the change will happen." Mikasa felt naked at his glaring, but she stayed calm, sensing the revolution that was going on inside him. "He only needed to drink my blood to activate the change."

Mikasa thought he was going to attack her. Instead, he blinked, his demonic eyes shining with something closer to consciousness, and he scowled to himself, shaking lightly his head.

Levi walked away, giving her his back. He took her rucksack, shook off the snow of it and grabbed the silver knife, saving it inside his military boot.

"It's enough." He said. His voice was a hoarse whisper. "Let's go back."

Mikasa felt guilty during their trip back to her house. Levi was quiet, quieter than normally, and she imagined it was because of his past.

Her mouth went dry. Thinking back, she never experienced anything bad before. She didn't have any loved one dead, she never had an accident when she was a child. Her parents gave her the best childhood, the best protection they could afford. During high school, the closest to suffering Mikasa faced was Eren's subtle rejection. He was right about her, she was way too innocent, too pure for this world, and know she was getting in danger voluntarily, exposing her life for the sake of a feeling that a 'gift' caused on her.

In that moment, she wished she could give him a little part of that perfection that surrounded her life.

They were just some meters from the beginning of her backyard when Mikasa said bye with her hand, her cheeks still blotched thanks to her shame.

" _Mikasa_."

She stopped walking.

"Ye—"

Mikasa couldn't finish because her body was violently pulled against a tree trunk just as fast as Levi's lips were collapsing with hers. Mikasa gasped, her breathe being inhaled by his opened mouth, and then it exploded inside her: the pleasure.

Suddenly she had the urge to tangle her fingers in his hair and her legs in his hips and her tongue with his, her body shaking in less than five seconds. It was like a hot wave that almost drown her, and she knew he felt it too when he thrust against her and moaned, a dark sound that quivered her inner walls and made her arched her back, shivers running down her spine. His hands went from the tree trunk to her shoulders and down her sides and ribs until he was clenching her waist in an almost painful mode, desperation melting his steady self.

Mikasa was getting crazy with his hardness, the soft skin of his lips, the sensation of his heavy body against her. The pressure he made on her, the tension of his muscles and the slow undulation of his hips between her thighs, were all what she wanted, all what she dreamt of and _more_.

He thrusted harder, his hardness fitting perfectly in her center, only thick fabric between their bodies, and Mikasa sobbed, her body falling into a tingling fire.

He made a quiet, shivering beastly sound, and Mikasa had to exhale when he grabbed her chin and lowered her face.

"Open your eyes."

Mikasa opened her mouth instead, looking for air to calm her unsteady body.

Levi bit her lower lip, his tongue licking it before letting it go. His hands went down again, caressing her hips circularly, and Mikasa lolled her head for a second, dizzy.

"Open your eyes." She did as he said. "Look at me."

Mikasa's blurred eyes found his, ignoring the left hand that went up to cover her chest. Under it rested her heart, its heartbeats being felt between her legs.

He kissed her again, this time slowly, taking his time to know her lips, but he didn't close his eyes, and she found it more pleasuring, more intimate. His hand toured over her thick jacket until it rested in her left cheek, his thumb drawing tender dots that kissed her skin and her soul. Their breaths caressed each other's faces, the sound of their hectic exhalations coming together.

Without averting his eyes from Mikasa's, Levi started to fade away. Mikasa felt the heat sitting down in her body, a mixture of anxiety and eagerness that wanted to grab him and never let him go.

 _You don't have any idea of how much you've got into me..._

He shut his eyes and rested his forehead on hers, breathing slowly as her heartbeats went steady. His hand still in her cheek, his fingers did little motions. Mikasa noticed his struggle to stay calm.

To not hurt her.

He grabbed her thighs kindly and put her legs on the floor, but he didn't get away from her.

His voice was plane when he spoke.

"There's something I have to tell you."

Mikasa noticed that his eyes weren't blue like when she met him hours before. Again, she made him hungry.

Nevertheless, she didn't like the look in his eyes.

"What happened?"

"I have some issues to take care of."

"What... What kind of issues?"

"Dangerous ones."

She swallowed.

"Are they related to that vampire I saw you killing?"

He sighed. "Yes."

"Is it… is it going to take long?"

"Days, weeks… Maybe months."

Gasping, Mikasa raised one of her hands, unsure, and touched the cold skin of his face. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the sensation, and then he stepped back, leaving the warm of her body.

Her heart started to pain. Real pain that made her snarl. Levi didn't say anything about it, but by the look of his face, it was clear he knew about it.

"They'll try to find a way to harm me." His fists clenched. "I won't let that happen." After saying this, Levi reached the dagger in his boot and, exhaling, he directed it to her. Widening her eyes, she took the dagger slowly, hiding her face in her scarf. "You know how to use it. Keep it with you —always. It'll be enough for now."

Mikasa didn't like this. She didn't like the idea of not coming in the late night to meet him, didn't like the idea of not listening to his point of view of old history tales. She hated how worry she felt for him, like some kind of anxious girlfriend that was watching her lover going to the war, just that this felt worse than that. She didn't even know what was her for him, but if this was the way those girls felt —an empty space at her chest, a black hole which pain felt worse than any swollen muscle, worse than any wound—, then she wasn't sure she could resist it.

"How do I know you'll be coming back?"

He grimaced. "Believe me, you'll know."

Stepping back, Levi's shape started to dissipate. He stopped. "There's something else, too. The vampire you saw me killing… I waited three hundred fucking years to do it. I tried everything just to not… not touch her _that_ way." He frowned, shutting his eyes like if the memory of him kissing her, touching her, was enough to disturb him. _Why was she so important to kill for him?_ Wondered Mikasa. "But she was too strong and intelligent. At the end, that was the only way to deceive her."

Mikasa understood. He felt the necessity to explain her his actions, to make her believe he didn't want to do the same with her. She nodded. "It's OK. I… I understand." Tears coming up her throat were swallowed quickly, and she cleared it when this wasn't enough. "Thank you for… for telling me."

Levi was genuinely confused.

"Why are you thankful?"

"Because you trusted me enough to do so." She hid her little smile in her scarf.

This time was his turn to wide his eyes. He masked his face fast, so Mikasa almost didn't see it. After watching his reaction, the pain in her chest wasn't as big as when he told her about his departure.

He closed his eyes, letting his limbs transform in nothing, the black teleportation occurring. Mikasa couldn't resist the tears that ran down her cheeks, disillusionment pouring from her extremities so hard that she fell on her knees.

"I'll be back, brat." He said, his body disappearing. "Don't go out alone." _Please._

And just like that, he was gone.

…

"You look bigger than the last time I saw you."

"Yes, I've been…" Mikasa cleared her throat. "Doing some exercise."

"You are always working out."

"But this time I've been working out harder."

Armin didn't say anything, and both kept walking, following a distracted Eren that talked on his cellphone with Historia about their presentation two days ago. Soon they were buying the tickets for the movie and walking towards the movie theater, the smell of popcorn wetting Mikasa's mouth. She was hungry almost all the time.

It was Friday, five days later since Levi stopped coming to see her. It was weird for Mikasa, waking up every night at the same late hour only to find that there was no reason to go to the woods. Rolling through her bed the rest of the time, Mikasa had thought of every moment she spent with him, repeating to herself that, if he didn't come back, it was going to be better for her safety.

Of course, this was like a joke in the morning, when the sun sparkled like a slap on her face. She trusted him, more than she'd trusted any male in her whole life —the only exception her dad— and she wanted to believe in the bond they had created.

So instead of going back to the same sad thoughts again, she obligated herself to focus on the things she used to do before knowing him, taking a little time for her own pleasure. Armin was a great plus for her decision. He came from the university to spend Christmas with his family, his blonde hair longer and his eyes looking happier than the last time she saw him. As soon as they greeted each other, Armin had noticed the big change she had been coming through, starting with the fact that she looked more intimidating, not to say like a beast that escaped from a cage. She still looked delicate enough to get main roles, but Mikasa doubted Hange's silence, which she knew was going to be broken soon if she kept working out more than necessary… She liked it too much to stop already.

Armin didn't take off his eyes from her, scrutinizing her features like if it were palpable she was hiding something very important from him. The first thing he said to her once the movie had started and Eren fell asleep next to them, took her off guard.

"You don't look at him the way you used to."

Mikasa choked her popcorn and coughed silently. "What do you mean?"

"Eren." He whispered back. "Are you finally getting over him?"

Her eyebrows arched with insecurity. "I… guess so?"

He nodded slowly. "Mmmm…" Eating more popcorn, he focused on the movie, deliberately ignoring the anxious girl next to him.

When the movie finished, the three of them went to the cafeteria. As they waited for the pizza, Eren went to the bathroom and left Armin and Mikasa alone. She wanted to flee, scared that he was going to cannon her with lots of questions that she didn't want to answer.

"Don't worry." Said Armin, drinking water and then smiling. "I'll not ask if you don't want to talk. It's just too clear that there's something going on with you."

Mikasa flushed. She felt bad for hiding things to Armin —the only person that made her feel that way— but she wanted to protect Levi's real nature, and there was this thing about their relationship, she sensed it like a little secret they kept and she didn't want to share.

"Thank you."

The pizza arrived and Eren went back from the bathroom. He soon noticed the awkward silence.

"Why are you both so quiet?" He asked seconds later.

Biting his slice of pizza, Armin smiled to his friend. "Mikasa was jealous because I have a girlfriend."

Eren's eyes sparkled with curiosity. "You're shitting on me."

Armin smiled more. "Of course not! She's perfect. Actually, she's coming next week to spend Christmas with me. We've been together since early October."

Eren laughed and hit Armin's left shoulder, excited. "Yes! That's amazing, man!"

Mikasa frowned. "That's really fast if we talk about how long you've been dating her." Eren was smiling, nodding, and then he frowned funnily at Mikasa, disagreeing for a second before biting his pizza. "What's her name, by the way? Where did you meet her?"

Armin sighed, blinking like he was watching some angel in front of him as he remember his girlfriend. Mikasa wondered if her face looked the same when she used to think of Eren… or when she thought of Levi.

"Her name's Annie." He swallowed. "She's German. You see… She saved me from being killed!"

Eren spit his food. "WHAT?"

"What are you talking about, Armin?" Said Mikasa, grabbing his arm with concern.

The blonde blushed a little, smiling clumsily. "I was trying some experiment at the backyard of my apartment and she was sitting on the swing of the kids' park. My experiment went wrong but I didn't notice in time…" He laughed, scratching the back of his blonde head. "She… she did, though. She jumped from her place and pushed me out of the way. She was really fast!"

Mikasa's heart almost stopped, thinking in his friend's life.

"Please, Armin, stop doing crazy shit!" Said Eren, hiding his face on his hand. Mikasa glared at him.

"You know, you aren't the best to say that sort of things."

"You neither."

It was the look —mixed with the way he said it—, which made Mikasa narrow her eyes. _Did he saw me with Levi…?_ She cleared her throat. "Whatever." She looked at Armin again. "Do you have pictures with her?"

"Actually, no." He looked thoughtfully. "She doesn't like to take pictures, I don't know why. But you'll see, she's pretty."

That was what Mikasa less cared about, but if Armin was happy with the girl, she didn't mind.

"And what happened after that? Did you invite her to some place or what?" Asked Eren.

"She helped me clean the disaster my experiment did. Then, she invited me to have some drink at her flat. She lived three floors beneath mine! We spoke a lot that day and when it was my time to go to the university… She told me she was assisting to the same as me!" He smiled widely. "She's studying biochemistry, though. It fits her. Sometimes she acts very weird…" He put the same face he had when he saw Mikasa's body change… Like he knew there was something being hidden, something _serious._ He shook his head, going back to the same happy aspect."But I guess she'll tell me when we experience more things together."

"Maybe she is very fond of unicorns or, I don't know, spiders, and she doesn't know how to tell you." Said Eren without looking at him.

"She has a little obsession with blood." When he said this, Mikasa's attention was gotten very fast, her hands stopping the slice of pizza she was directing towards her mouth.

"OK, I think she's weird." Mumbled Eren, a finger on his chin, like he was thinking. "Hey, do you remember when Mikasa was obsessed with Dracula?"

Mikasa bit her pizza so she couldn't answer. Her friends kept talking about Dracula for a long time, not knowing that she had her personal, demonic creature that visited every night at the deep of the woods. When they got bored of the topic, they jumped to their recent activities, talking until it was time to close the shopping center.

Armin and Eren stood up and waited for Mikasa as she put on her scarf and jacket. Nostalgia blushed her chest and arms when she remembered the same image but from years ago, when they were just a bunch of kids that believed themselves grownups. Now, when they were very aware of their flaws —even when sometimes they did nothing at all to fix those— she marveled at how handsome they were, both tall men that easily could be confused with a pair of guardsmen or soldiers in holiday.

Still, she knew that wasn't enough, that they were _weak,_ just like her, just like every human.

Mikasa reached Eren's hand when he helped her to stand up.

"Time to go, Dracula's fan."

…

It was a dark, snowy night. No stars shone for any human, and the cold was freezing their red noses and aching cheeks. They were laughing, though, the feeling of home invading their lonely hearts every time they looked each other's eyes. Armin and Eren were using their cellphone to light the sidewalk, which was a little slippery in some parts. Each time one of them slipped, they laughed like drunk dorks, mocking each other and their balance.

Just when they were about to turn in a corner, Eren stopped walking, making Armin crash with his back. Mikasa looked at the same direction he was staring to, noticing what had made him stop.

Three men were walking at their direction, their faces showing a threatening expression.

Mikasa knew they had to come back at the moment that one of them smiled cruelly, showing her what she needed to grab her friends by their shoulders and turn them around, walking away as fast as they could. Eren tried to hide his cellphone in his pocket, but Mikasa stopped him, telling him to keep illuminating the pavement. "Too late for that."

Armin was pale, his eyes wide and looking everywhere. He gasped and startled, he signaled with his trembling finger a few meters beyond. "L-look!"

Three more men were walking towards them. The tallest one was wearing the hood of his winter jacket, perhaps to not show his face. He took out a knife from the front pocket of the jacket, and the rest did the same, showing their weapons.

 _No no no. This is not happening._

This wasn't Mikasa's plan. She was supposed to have a magic night with her friends, going through the streets without feeling unsafe. She never thought of it —of humans being the first threat to her loved ones.

Eren grabbed their wrists and pushed them to an alley that was behind them, swearing silently. They started running, their breathing leaving little clouds as they moved… to a dead end. Armin let out a little scream, watching around in vain. The only way to go out of that place was where they entered, and when Mikasa turned back to check if they were coming, the six men were just a couple of meters behind them, slowing their pace when it was obvious they didn't have a way to escape. Mikasa swallowed, putting Armin behind her like she was some kind of shield. Her heart was beating fast and her body sweated even when it was really cold outside. She gasped when Eren passed them both, standing with his front directed toward the men that now surrounded them.

Mikasa felt her knees shaking.

"Eren… What the _fuck_ are you doing?" She whispered angrily, squeezing Armin's hand so hard he grumbled.

Eren's voice sounded determined. "Protecting you."

"Ah, I know who you are!" Said one of the men, which had bleached hair. He was the only one that didn't have a knife, and Mikasa had a cold idea of why. "You're those pussies of that Ballet School!" The men laughed at his words. He averted his eyes from Eren to observe Mikasa's body lavishly, licking his own lips with a mocking sound. "It seems like we're gonna have some fun tonight."

"You motherfucker!" Screamed Eren.

Mikasa shouted his name, jumping to him, but it was too late. Armin grabbed her by the arm when Eren was already running with his clenched fist towards the bleached haired man. He was fast though, taking off guard his companions when he punched the man's stomach. She screamed again, moving like a snake inside Armin's grasp, and this time Eren wasn't fast enough to avoid one of the man's fist, and another, and another. Mikasa felt her screams turning hoarse her voice when Eren fell and started to spit blood on the floor, the men kicking him without mercy. When her voice was gone thanks to all her screams, Mikasa's eyes darkened when Eren lost consciousness. The men laughed, moving their knives like they were pretending to be professionals with it. The bleached man was recovered from the punch Eren gave him, but he still looked at him with hatred, and he was directing his hand to his pants to take out _something_.

All of a sudden, a memory of Levi teaching her came to her mind, and Mikasa felt the urge to cry… Because she knew what she had to do in that moment.

"Armin…" She whispered. Her blonde friend was crying behind her, his arms still holding her strongly. His blue eyes were incredibly opened, like if he was still searching for a way to escape. She cried silently too. "Armin, do you trust me?"

Armin swallowed and nodded, and both of them looked at the gun with muffler the man was releasing and putting on Eren's head, the rest of the man checking Eren's cellphone and wallet. No one was paying attention to Mikasa and Armin, and she saw the perfect route to act.

" _Release me."_

Armin's cries got worse, but he did so, shivering like he was already regretting his decision. He always hated his cowardice, and right now, cowardice was the thing that made him scream her name with his eyes closed as his arms fell to his sides, trembling.

He heard a silenced shot.

" _Mikasa!"_

But Mikasa wasn't listening. When he started to hear the sobs and moans of pain coming from the place in which the thieves where, Armin opened his eyes, shock — _pure shock—,_ covering his whole body.

Mikasa was beating the shit out of the thieves.

She was kicking, punching, breaking and knocking, her limbs moving so fast he almost couldn't distinguish them. She motioned between them like a lost hunter that found her real passion. Her face was stained with drops of blood, blood that wasn't hers. She broke one of the man's nose, then hit the stomach of another and dodged a third's kick, bending and stretching her leg in a deadly strike to make him strip over. The last motion was so fast that his forehead crashed with the ground, passing out quickly.

" _Mi-Mikasa?"_

The knives didn't had any weight on her. She took off each one of the weapons, throwing them far away enough to not be found in time. In a matter of seconds, there was only two men standing, the tallest thief and the one with bleached hair. The first had a swelling eye, his hood fallen on his back, while the second was trying to hold two broken fingers as his bloody eyes looked desperately for his gun on the filthy, snowy floor.

She knew the first one was dangerous. The way he grabbed his knife indicated it. She'd deliberately left him —and his useless head— at last, but now she couldn't delay it any longer.

Mikasa raised her right foot and took out the dagger Levi gave her, spinning it easily on her fingers. She positioned her feet just as he taught her, putting the dagger in front of her and her left hand in a tight fist. The man did the same as her, preparing to fight her and kill her at any cost.

Mikasa didn't take off her eyes from him when she spoke to her blonde friend.

"Armin…" She clasped the dagger's handle, her sore throat burning with pain. "Make sure Eren's alright." Then her voice became darker, her eyebrows frowning in a lethal glare. "My specialty is slicing off meat. If necessary, I can display that talent at any time. So if any of you here want to experience it firsthand... please, step right up."

The man bite her bait. He growled, maybe offended by those arrogant words coming out from a girl's mouth, and attacked her.

Mikasa's eyes widened, falling in an ample concentration when she received —and deviated— his strike. The sound of knife against knife filled the silence of the place, their weapons sparkling with every crash they did. Mikasa fought quietly, her brain reminding Levi's words perfectly as she made her way into the man's defense. She cut his left forearm, then his right thigh, his right ear… She was slicing him bit by bit.

He looked terrified at the end, accepting she was stronger. Mikasa stepped back, preparing to stick her dagger in a strategic place to only make him lose consciousness.

Then someone thrust her to the floor —and another silenced shot was heard along with Armin's scream.

Mikasa opened her eyes and sat quickly. She didn't understand what was going on, she didn't know where the shot came from. The only thing she knew was that the man with the knife was coming for her face. Mikasa saw the edge of the knife, saw her own face in its shiny surface. Behind her, Armin's hand was also coming to try and protect her, but Mikasa had already calculated the distance. His hand was not going to protect her face in time.

She snarled, waving her hand as fast as she could to diverge his attack. The sharp side of the knife teared apart the palm of her hand and even when it slowed down, it was still directing towards her. Mikasa screamed out loud when the knife cut her cheek, a cut that was deep enough to leave a scar.

She saw red. With her left leg, she knock the man down and hit his wrist to take his knife.

She stick the knife in his chest.

The man looked at her, shocked, and Mikasa got away from him slowly, her back meeting Armin's hands. The thief stopped moving, his eyes turning opaque, and Mikasa understood why.

He was dead.

Armin screamed again, and Mikasa shook her head, standing up and watching around as she remembered there was still one man alive.

"He ran away!" Screamed Armin behind her, his sobs too strong to be ignored. In the distance, the sound of the sirens was heard.

Mikasa looked at Eren, which was still unconscious on the floor.

"Is he OK?" She mumbled, swaying dizzy. Black points were haunting her sight.

Armin only nodded, still crying and screaming nonsense. "Mikasa!"

She startled, worried that one of the men on the floor was waking up. "What is it?!"

"YOU'RE BLEEDING!"

At the beginning, she thought he was referring to her slashed hand, but a second later she felt pain coming from other place of her body. Mikasa's eyes opened with horror when she looked at her legs.

Her right thigh was red. She looked at the wound, noticing it was dangerously close to the great saphenous vein. At her feet, a red puddle was appearing, every second bigger and bigger.

But Mikasa couldn't see how big it turned.

The next second, she only saw darkness.

* * *

 **Ah, finally! Thank you so, so, so much for your comments! I always scream (yes, I'm that stupid) every time I see some feedback! I really hope you're enjoying this story as much as I'm enjoying to write it.**

 **I hope you liked this chapter! I listened to Licht and Schatten by Yukata Yamada (from Tokyo Ghoul soundtrack) while writing this, if you are interested to know.**

 **That's it, see you next update!**

 **La que tals.**


	7. Loneliness

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **x**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

 _"Save my daughter, oh please, please save her!"_

 _Mom?_

Mikasa couldn't move or speak. Her body was like a rock, limbs resting without obeying her mental orders. She felt hands touching her, putting things in her body that she couldn't see or touch. She could hear her mother crying not that far from her, she could hear his father trying to calm her, telling her she was going to be okay.

She didn't feel okay. As the seconds passed, her mind felt heavier and heavier, and she couldn't think at all, her ideas fading slowly, going to unknown places…

 _"No! No! Please, my baby no!"_

A white light swallowed her completely. Mikasa smiled.

…

The next time she felt conscious again, there was the presence of a woman next to her, and Mikasa knew this time wasn't her mother. Her right thigh was warm, warmer than normal, as if something hot was floating just above it. Mikasa tried to move, but her body felt too weak, too heavy to even rise a single finger.

She heard a door open, footfalls getting closer until another person was standing next to her.

"How's she doing?" A baritone voice asked. She heard a metallic sound followed by a plastic bag being gauged. Her nostrils sensed a whiff of blood.

"Better than yesterday. The wound is almost gone, though it's a little puffy." This time, the voice was from the woman standing next to her leg. The way it sounded informed Mikasa that she wasn't pleased to do whatever she was doing with her thigh in that moment.

"She still needs blood." Said the man. _He's a doctor,_ Mikasa thought when she felt a pair of big, cold hands touching her left arm, manipulating the catheter she had there. Again, the smell of blood reached her nose. "This'll change her smell."

When he said this, Mikasa almost opened her eyes.

 _Change her smell._

Suddenly, she felt as vulnerable as that night at the club.

The light engulfed her again.

…

This time she was able to open her eyes. They teared a little, overwhelmed by the light surrounding her, and Mikasa took a long moment to calm her breath and look around her.

Yes, she was in a hospital. At her right, the sunlight went through big, uncovered windows. The dusk made the sky look like it was falling in bleeding pieces. She admired the sight, her brain bringing back all what happened the night before. Eren and Armin hanging out with her. The movie, the pizza, Armin's girl, and the laughter the three of them shared before everything turned out badly. Eren on the floor, Armin crying and her fighting the thieves.

Sighing, Mikasa scoured her face with her hands, ignoring the little pain that the motion caused on her left hand. She was trying hard not to stand up and run to find her friends. Where were they? How was Eren? She held a sob in her throat, shaking her head.

She stopped. Slowly, she wandered off her limbs, observing her palms like they weren't hers at all. Her left hand had the catheter, its IV connected to an already empty bag behind her. The leftover of what looked like blood stained its interior. Mikasa swallowed, averting her eyes from the bag and looking back to her hands with a shiver. Again, she gaped when she noticed her right hand, which wasn't wounded anymore. If so, the only thing that proved the sliced flesh was just a white line of new skin going from her little finger to the center of her palm.

 _How?_

Feeling her breath becoming unstable, she removed the coverlet from her body and checked her right leg. It was bandaged, but Mikasa still felt something was wrong. With her fingernails, she tried to take off the white material, biting her lip when a hiss of pain tried to go out. It hurt, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"What're you doing?"

Mikasa startled, looking up. Her hands froze when she saw a woman sitting in a coach on the corner of the room, her presence disguised with a thick, dark green quilt that covered all her body excepting from her dark, freckled face. She was large, Mikasa noticed, but she also looked like a green ball in the couch, like she was hiding from someone inside the fabric. Her eyes resembled those of a cat, two annoyed, intelligent splits that made Mikasa frown. If it wasn't for the fact that this woman seemed to hate her, Mikasa would had laugh of her weird pose in that coach.

The sunlight decreased and decreased until there was none. Just as the darkness filled the room, the woman took off of her the quilt, her long legs straightening with languid movements. Mikasa's face darkened when the woman walked towards her, a hand on her left hip, her eyes going back and forth on Mikasa, and then she stopped in front of her.

Mikasa didn't like this woman. There's something about her, something that prompted her to get away from her as far as she could.

"What were you trying to do, girl?"

Mikasa took a deep breath, noticing how dry her throat felt. When was the last time she drank water?

"Nothing." Her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat, thinking of a better answer. "I'm a ballet dancer."

"I know you are."

"I needed to check if my wound was too serious, I don't want scars in my skin." It was the best answer, knowing how the people liked to think of ballet dancers like vain, superficial people.

The woman crossed her arms and looked from above, her eyes shining with what seemed to be disappointment as she turned back and went to the door.

"I'll tell Doc you're awake."

"Where's my mom? Eren?"

But she didn't answer, closing the door without looking back.

Mikasa sought water at the bedside tables, groaning with thirst and hunger. She thought of her leg again, but she didn't have enough time to do anything. A blonde man entered the room, followed by the dark-skinned woman.

And then it hit her.

 _This'll change her smell._

Mikasa jumped out of the bed, the floor welcoming her back hard, and her trembling hands looked for something, an object, an injector, a glass, _just something._

Impossibly fast, a pair of hands were grabbing her shoulders, an unnatural strength that tried to put her down.

"Hey, hey… Shhh… We won't hurt you."

" _Don't touch me."_ She hissed. She wished she was as dangerous as her voice promised, but the only thing she could feel as she watched the eyes from the man holding her was pure, cold fear.

He stared at her for two long seconds and released her slowly, showing her his bare hands. "OK, OK. I'll not touch you, but be quiet, please. We don't want to scare your mother."

Mikasa stuck her knees to her chest, sliding to a corner of the room without stopping looking at him. His hair was perfectly combed and he smelled good, a strong fragrance that flooded his surroundings. He was using a white robe, its name embroidered in the left flap.

 _Dr. Erwin Smith._

She wasn't convinced. Mikasa could feel his power, the word _danger_ flowed out of him almost like a visible omen. His eyes were a deep, clean blue, but his skin was too smooth and shiny, like a porcelain surface, just like the woman's behind him.

Just like Levi's.

Mikasa almost slipped when she put her left hand on the floor. When she jumped out of the bed she ripped her catheter. Blood was puddling beneath her palm, and Mikasa almost screamed when she understood what was about to happen.

"Ymir, get out of here." Said Erwin, getting closer to her. Mikasa thought he was going to attack her. Instead, he put one of his cold thumbs on her hand, holding her blood inside her vein. "Here, stand up."

She did as he said and then he helped her sit on the bed. He helped her with her hand, bandaging her by himself. Mikasa tried not to look at him, but it was impossible, knowing what he was.

"You're a vampire."

"Yes."

" _And_ you're a doctor."

He nodded, letting out a chuckle. "Yes."

" _How?"_

"Before I turned into a vampire, I was already a doctor. I obliged my thirst to adapt to my life and not the opposite."

Mikasa raised a brow.

"You make it sound like it's easy."

"It wasn't; it took me a century."

She swallowed, though her throat was still dry. She doubted she would be able to know if he was a vampire or not before she met Levi. They were among humans, just like he said, and they knew how to hide it very well.

Mikasa closed her eyes for a moment, denying her stupidity. She shouldn't have reacted that way. The fact that she was still sitting there was a pure miracle.

"How did you meet Levi?"

Mikasa opened her eyes just when the doctor took a step back, finishing with her hand. She hugged herself, averting her eyes from him.

"Do you know him?"

"Yes. I recruited him one hundred years ago."

She almost didn't breathe. "He told me he didn't have friends."

He smiled, shrugging. "He's like that. He rather lies than risking your life telling you about his."

Mikasa wanted to believe him, but she couldn't stop feeling uneasy.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"Because I just saved your life." He said, taking one napkin from the tray on the table next to Mikasa's bed. "I wouldn't do it if he were my enemy. You're too important for him."

He bended and started cleaning the blood on the floor, not caring a little second that that wasn't his job at all. Mikasa tried not to gape at his words and actions.

"How'd you know that?" She asked, not knowing if she wanted to hear the answer. "How do you know I'm important for him?"

When he finished cleaning the blood, he straightened, making a little ball with the napkin and throwing it to the trashcan. He walked to the door and grabbed the doorknob. Before opening, he answered, giving her a side look.

"He wouldn't have marked you with his essence if you weren't." He opened the door. "He's never done that before."

…

The police went to make questions about the assault. Mikasa told them all the story just the way it happened, not paying that much of attention to them. When they asked her where did she learn to fight, Mikasa told them she followed a strict training that she found in internet and that she mixed all of it with her ballet lessons. They didn't seem to have any problem with her alibi, and Eren and Armin's were the same as Mikasa's, though none of them knew how she learnt to fight.

Still, being interviewed made her remember the man she killed and how wounded Eren was on the floor, the tears that covered Armin's face, the horror in his expression as he told her she was bleeding.

Mikasa needed to get out there and go to the security of home, with her parents, her ballet movies and her red scarf and Levi's company.

But Levi wasn't there. He was faraway, in an unknown place, _not_ protecting her. She bet he didn't even know she was hurt.

He broke her promise. He was supposed to protect her, to _be_ with her. Right now, being in a hospital with a doctor and a nurse that were _vampires_ , he was breaking her promise again and again. What if they actually weren't his friends? She would be dead by now, she and her friends, and everybody connected to her.

Mikasa thought she would get excited about having his essence over her, but as things turned out, she doubted that was the best decision from his part. Didn't he tell her that her smell could be sensed from long distances? She tried to smell herself at dinner like if she had the ability to do so, and the only thing she could sense was the stingy odor of not having a bath in a day. Why would he do it? And at what moment? Maybe when he kissed her, when he touched her… Mikasa shivered. No. She wasn't happy with this, with any of this.

The woman, Ymir (what a coincidence that her name was the same from the story Levi told her. Was that a lie too?), had a special ability, one of those Levi talked about _._ The second day Mikasa spent in the hospital, her wounded leg was as healed as her hand, all her pain gone. She also helped Eren, and Mikasa let herself smile when she found out that he was walking again. Thankfully, he never knew about his broken ribs, believing that his pain was just because of his swollen torso.

Everything, so far, was going on alright, but somehow, Ymir forgot about Mikasa's face, _the fucking scratch on her face_ , and her power was limited, so limited, that she hadn't had a single drop left to heal her scratch.

She had used her own cellphone camera to check the scratch in the middle of the night, wiping away the furious tears running down her face. The scratch was horrible, a blood-shell that marked her immaculate face. How was she going to perform now? How was she going to hide the scar when she danced? Did some miraculous make up exist to fix it?

Mikasa remembered when her mother saw the scratch. She was more scared for her face than her leg. Mikasa hated to feel the same. She didn't know if she was happy because her leg and hand were okay or if she was depressed because her ballet career was probably going to end.

And it wasn't because of vampires. It was because of some miserable, despicable humans.

At least her blood was not pure anymore. With someone else's blood running through her veins, Mikasa hoped her essence won't be as strong as before, even if that meant…

Not having Levi's attention anymore.

The third night before she was discharged, Mikasa cried, hiding her face from the darkness as she felt her dream of becoming a _Prima Ballerina Assoluta_ escaping from her hands, hands that were dirtied with somebody's blood.

…

"You better tell me how the hell did you learn to fight like that."

Armin was passing in front of her, obstructing the movie she was trying to watch since she woke up that morning. He had talked to her all these days, comforting her, but never about what she did, never about the men she hit and the one she killed.

It wasn't until the next morning after she was discharged that he went to her house, knowing she would be alone at that time, to ask about what happened.

Mikasa had had a hard time the day before. Her friends from the dance school had come to her house to see her, bringing sweets and chips with them and a lot of stuff she didn't eat, but she was still thankful for. She told them to visit Eren since she knew he would be feeling worse, and they did, of course, but not before letting her know that they were supporting her and wishing her well.

Mikasa smiled and appreciated their visit, but she wasn't stupid, she sensed the pity coming from them. She almost could hear the whispers… She knew, of course she knew. Her face was marked now. Everything was going to change from now on, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Armin was sitting on the coffee table, his blue eyes digging holes in her.

"I already told you. I learned through internet."

He let out an exhalation, staring at the ceiling.

"I know you're lying, Mikasa."

She stared at him blankly and then continued watching the movie. However, she locked an eye on him when he stood up and walked to his backpack. Seconds later, he pulled out a dagger, _her_ dagger, the one Levi gave to her.

"Why were you carrying this with you?" His voice, accusatory, made Mikasa jerk back, blinking surprised. She had forgotten about it. How did he get it? It had fallen off her hand when Armin jumped to save her from the bullet. It was maybe in that moment or after she passed out.

"We all have something to defend ourselves."

"That's bullshit. You are not like this." He said, putting the dagger on the coffee table. "What do you think would have happened if I didn't take this with me in time?"

Mikasa shook his head. She stuttered. "Nothing. There's nothing wrong about having a dagger…"

"You sure?"

Mikasa didn't answer.

"Where did you get it?" He asked, sitting in front of her again. "Where. Did. You. Get. It?"

She straightened, feeling a little angry. "I'm not telling you, Armin. And if I did, would it make any difference?"

"Of course!" He said, moving his arms desperately, "If you swore to me that you are not doing anything… bad, my sanity would be safe and I would be able to think like a fucking normal human being."

Mikasa frowned, worrying in less than a second.

"What are you talking about?"

He hid his face for a while before looking at her again. There was hesitation in his expression. Mikasa crossed her arms, feeling the coldness of her own fingers under her breasts. She didn't mean to make him worry for her, but she was so not telling him anything about Levi… Or Erwin. Or Ymir.

"I'm not doing anything bad, Armin. Why are you asking me these questions?"

Armin took a deep breath.

"Eren's worried about you." He said, exhaling deeply. "We both are."

Mikasa flushed, averting her eyes from him. Armin being worry was one thing, but Eren…

"Why is he worried?" Mikasa shook her head again. "If it's about my face, I'll be—"

"It's not about your face. He said… He said you were seeing someone."

Mikasa didn't move. How could Eren know? Did he… did he see Levi somewhere… with her? So she wasn't wrong about him suspecting her.

Her expression went hollow.

"Not again with that."

"I told you that night what I saw… And Eren made a point too. Who is that person you're seeing, Mikasa? Is that the reason you're not doing good in the ballet school? Is that… person the one who gave that dagger? And what about the fight skills?"

Mikasa stood up, not caring about how odd that would look like because of her fake wounded leg. She just wanted to flee. Maybe that would stop Armin from coming too deep in dangerous waters.

"I'm not seeing anyone, Armin." She said in a cold tone, limping to the stairs when, in fact, she could walk perfectly already. Her heart felt heavier when another lie came out, but her limbs also felt weak, betraying her nervousness.

 _To protect you. You don't need to know. Eren doesn't need to know. I'll do whatever it takes… just to protect you._

She was alone now, just like before Levi appeared in her life, but everything was different, _so different._ She never thought she would care about someone else's blood running through her body or how her smell would change thanks to that. She never thought she would be afraid of losing her ballet career thanks to a simple scratch on her face. She never thought… she would care for a _vampire…_ One that was gone.

"Mikasa, please…"

Armin was behind her, beseeching.

She didn't turn back. If she did, she would collapse and start crying right there. She lied to all her family, to Eren and, principally, to the only friend that could really understand her, Armin. How she wished she could talk about it… but if her silence was going to assure Armin's innocence, silent she was going to stay.

…

 _Days, weeks… maybe months._

Christmas were so close… Mikasa liked Christmas. She liked the lights, the Christmas tree, the presents her parents gave her —always related to ballet— and the parties that came with it, even when she wasn't the best participant in those ones. She always loved to sing with her friends, sometimes letting herself scream a little when the song was one of her favorites. She liked to pick the books with winter vibes and enjoy them in a couch in front of her window, using her red scarf and the sweater her grandma from the eastern sea wove for her.

How much she liked Christmas… yet Mikasa felt hollowed. Like a doll. Dolls don't have souls, or hearts. Maybe her soul flew away with Levi's, but if the stories were true, Levi's soul would be in the profoundest part of hell. Maybe it was her heart instead. She didn't know, but she could feel it sometimes, the pain… and then the emptiness.

She just missed him. She didn't want to, but she did, just as easy as it was breathing, and dealing with Eren's suspicious glances at her and Armin's guilty stares weren't that much of a help either.

Mikasa didn't have strength to dance anymore. Her scratch was a reminder of what she was going to lose soon or later. She was only waiting for Hange to come over and tell her she was finished with that scarred cheek she now had, to tell her _I'm sorry, but we cannot let you perform with a scarred face._

Her parents didn't say anything about it either. They didn't question her suddenly healed thigh or healed hand. They didn't ask questions about the man she killed or how she defended her friends so easily. They didn't even question her decision of staying at home when her ballet friends invited her to parties… They just… let her deal with it, like she always did with everything else. They let her be.

Pretending nothing happened, Mikasa and her parents, much to her depressive attitude, followed their tradition. The Ackermans used to spend Christmas with the Jaegers and Arlerts, only receiving and sending gifts abroad to the rest of the Ackerman family. The night before Christmas Eve, they gathered in front of the Christmas Tree with all the gifts they bought for each family and lined them, listening to Christmas carols and making jokes that never got old. Mikasa tried to smile, but she couldn't… She felt like she had a black hole in her chest, swallowing all the good around her.

 _Falling…_

If Eren's rejection over her was bad before, knowing that Levi was going after Zackly somewhere instead of being with her felt a thousand, _no,_ a million times _worse._ It wasn't like she was more important than his father, but _still…_ She wanted to be with him, to make him feel better, to _believe_ in something.

Anyway, how was she going to do it, being incapable of believing in herself right now? Mikasa wasn't the kind of girl that needed someone's motivational words to start working out again, but recovering was being harder than she thought. She even doubted she was going to do it someday.

The next day went with a whiff of aromatic candles, pancakes and coffee, all mixed in a delicious smell that woke her even before her mom opened her bedroom door.

"Mikasa? Darling, wake up."

Mikasa turned to see her mother, covering her face from the sunlight coming through her window.

"Morning', mom."

Her mother smiled to her and knocked twice her door. She had a spoon on her left hand. "Come on, quickly! It's Christmas eve."

Mikasa grumbled, hiding her head under the pillow. Her mother laughed and went downstairs, following her husband voice when he started singing a song coming from the stereo. Mikasa reached her cellphone on her bedside table, sighing when she read the notification of three hundred messages, all of them from her ballet group.

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): Somebody there?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Rough Titan over here._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): You wish._

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Kiss my ass_

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): Oh, you've got one?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Yes, and it's bigger than yours. It's just your horseface, it doesn't let you see anything._

Mikasa rolled her eyes and stood up to go to the bathroom, ignoring the rest of the messages. She was jealous she didn't feel in the mode to chat like them.

When she came back, the group had talked again.

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): Guys, did Hange call u?_

 _Historia Reiss (QueenB): Nope, why?_

 _Sasha Braus (Blackhole): We have a party this Saturday, a fancy one._

 _Jean Kirstein (Horseface): I was about to say the same. She just called me to inform me. This is some important shit. Do u think Mikasa is coming too?_

 _Eren Jaeger (Tatakae): Mikasa, Hange called you?_

Mikasa was going to answer, but then her mother suddenly appeared at her door again.

"Ah! You're ready. You have a visit."

Mikasa frowned, curious.

"Who is it?"

"Your coacher, Hange."

Mikasa gasped before putting a sweater and a pair of red socks. She wrote an answer for the group as she went downstairs, saying hi to her father and moving quickly to the front door.

 _Mikasa Ackerman (BalletBeast): Hange came to visit me. Maybe she'll tell me._

She sent the message and opened the door, preparing a smile for her coacher.

But the smile froze midway.

Hange was there, of course. But next to her was no other but Erwin Smith.

They were holding hands.

* * *

 ** _Surprise!_ I know, I know. I suck. Thanks for waiting, I've been struggling with Uni, my job and my scifi book. I promise you better times with this fic! (Which I can finally say reached half of the story!) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS! I'm gonna answer them right now! Thank you, thank you, thank you, I never expected so much love for this fic. I'm very sorry for all the mistakes I've had (I was rereading the fic and holy mother of cow, I suck in grammar). I'll fix everything I can!**

 **See you next update.**

 **xx**

 **La que tals.**


	8. Cold War

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **xx**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

Mikasa didn't want her parents to listen to their conversation, but it wasn't necessary to worry about that. At least that's what Hange told her just as she got in the house with Erwin, who immediately received big smiles from Mikasa's parents. Once they were alone in the living room, Mikasa sitting in front of both of them and with her parents away to give them privacy, Hange let out a funny sigh.

"We just came from visiting Eren. He's doing well. He'll be dancing again when we come back from holidays." She came closer to the edge of her couch, adjusting her glasses. "How are you feeling?" Asked, but Mikasa was focused on the way Erwin analyzed everything, from the photographs on the wall to the Asian vases decorating the place.

"I'm OK." Mikasa answered, crossing her legs like it was nothing. Both of them noticed.

Then Erwin's eyes turned to her and he said: "I can see the treatment worked."

Mikasa blinked repeatedly, nodding.

Just when Hange was about to talk again, Mikasa interrupted her.

"I didn't know you were together." She said, hugging herself as she hid her face on her red scarf. "I mean… If it wasn't for this visit, I'd still believe you're single. You're good hiding it, with all due respect." Her head cocked towards her coacher, who giggled as she heard her speak.

"Yes, I guess I am!" She chuckled, giving her husband a hump. She was _red,_ while Erwin just looked at her from above. Above, because he was _tall._ "We've been married since a decade ago."

 _What? So she knows._

Mikasa couldn't believe it. When Hange entered her house with the handsome vampire that saved her life, Mikasa was hoping her coacher didn't know anything about vampires, but it was impossible not to know when you were married with one since ten years ago.

"So you know… You know that Dr. Smith…" _is a vampire._

Hange sighed, smiling. "Yes." Then she adjusted her glasses, smiling even wider. "I know Levi too. That asshole, yeah."

Mikasa closed her eyes in a slow motion, chuckling briefly. This was absurd, completely and unbelievable absurd. Her coacher was married to a vampire, and this vampire was Levi's friend, who was a vampire too. She looked at the trees, clearing her throat in search of a way to not show her astonishment. She started thinking back, back to the days in which she couldn't sleep correctly and Hange insisted in checking on her.

"When you asked me why I was dancing so bad at my audition for Le Corsaire… Did you know the real reason?"

"Which real reason? That you were hanging out with a vampire every night in the woods behind your house? No. I didn't know until some weeks ago. I really thought you were failing thanks to Eren all this time." She said, sighing like the mere thought was a huge, unforgivable mistake. When she saw Mikasa's expression, she got closer, taking her hands between hers. "I'm sorry I didn't find out sooner, Mikasa. What he did was really dangerous..." She glanced at Erwin, looking for permission to continue. He just rested his back languidly on the couch, giving her a simple nod. "Levi's been… Very lonely these years, so we were surprised when he told us he found someone, but of course, we weren't aware of _who_ that person was. We thought it was someone more… you know, _older_ or… well, now _you_ _are strong,_ but we thought he was talking about a creature like him, not a human."

Mikasa looked at both of them, her breath a little unsteady. Without knowing, she was clenching Hange fingers.

"I'm sorry, really sorry I hid this from you, Mikasa."

"Why didn't you talk to me after you found out?"

Hange smiled.

"I was going to, but then the accident happened and here we are!"

"Actually," Said Erwin, his deep voice surprising them. "I was worried Levi would try and transform you against your will. We checked on you, and your blood was still pure."

 _Was._

"But we are not here to talk about your blood." He continued.

The girl stared at both repeatedly before talking, her words too quickly and low to be heard easily. But of course, she knew Dr. Smith was going to hear her. His blue eyes, so calm and intimidating, reassured her that.

"What is it for, then?"

In that moment, her mother came with tea and cookies. Hange grabbed the cookies after Mikasa said she didn't want any, and Erwin accepted the tea politely.

When they were alone again, Erwin was the one to exhale deeply.

"Mikasa… There's only one way to explain all this mess to you, but I want you to swear you're not going to scream when I do it."

Mikasa swallowed, staring at her coacher, who was giving her a trusting smile.

"What way is that?" She asked, not giving a straight answer.

Erwin interlaced his fingers on his lap.

"I imagine you've been wondering why your parents —and Eren parents— don't seem to mind what happened to your friends and you."

Mikasa didn't flinch, but she agreed with him. Mikasa knew her parents very well, and at the beginning, of course, she thought their distance was due to her personality, her way to approach a problem. But they weren't _that_ indifferent. She still could remember her mom screaming at the top of her lungs for her, her whimpers and pleas at the doctor now in front of her. How could they act so nonchalant just some days after her accident? How could they not care about her knowing how to use a _damn knife?_ How could they not care about the men she knocked down, the murder she committed? Even Eren parents were indifferent about it, and Eren had complained about it with her days ago, though Mikasa pretended she didn't understand him.

"That's due to my power. I can control minds, Mikasa. I can show memories through a touch, I can create new ones, erase them, even bring back those you don't remember at all. I can make you believe the devil is behind you…" When he said this, Mikasa gasped for air and her limbs started trembling, a darkness surrounding her as the whisper of a dark, mocking laugh reached her ears. Everything went black, and she felt _so_ alone and wretched, she tried to make a ball of herself. "I can make you believe God is behind you…" And in less than a second, Mikasa was trying hard not to cry, covering her mouth when a huge amount of peace touched her back, making her smile widely and forget about all her worries and sadness. "Or I can make you believe Levi never existed."

Mikasa blinked, refocusing in him again.

 _Levi… The vampire…_

 _Levi…_

 _Who is Levi?_

"But I'm not going to do that." Erwin said. When Mikasa blinked again, Erwin's hand was leaving her right cheek and he was taking some steps back, sitting in his couch again. Mikasa covered her mouth again, but to hide her scream.

His power… _This power…_ When did he touch his cheek? When did he get so closer to her? She looked behind her, searching for the evil he had brought so easily, the good that seemed so unlikely to appear in a random living room. But everything was alright. They were sitting there, with the sun touching their bodies through the window. She could hear her mother in the kitchen singing as she prepared lunch.

She also had forgotten Levi for a second. He was there, around her mind, his face as heavy as her breath, and then he wasn't, like if someone had snapped some fingers next to her ears.

Mikasa scowled at the blonde man. He didn't seem affected.

"I made your parents and Eren's parents believe that your accident wasn't that serious. It was a little hard with the police, but everything was fixed by the time your leg was completely healed. I couldn't do the same with your blonde friend, Armin… He has a powerful mind."

Between the shades of anguish that this knowledge provoked in Mikasa, the corners of her lips twitched a little. _You always, Armin._

"As for Eren… I don't know what's wrong with your friends, but my power didn't work in his mind at all." He sighed, showing the distress he was coming through.

"I think they'll have a lot of questions for you." Said Hange.

"Armin already tried to talk to me." Said Mikasa bitterly. "What should I tell them?"

"They don't need to know how Eren and you healed so easily. You can pretend you are just as confused as them. As for your fighting skills… I think that's your decision."

"I lied, but Armin didn't believe a thing."

"He has his reasons to. Give him time, he'll accept it if you keep insisting."

 _Or… He'll accept if I keep lying._

"Why did you make them believe my accident was nothing?" She asked to Erwin.

"You were going to die if we didn't proceed with the healing. You lost too much blood before the ambulance arrived. We had to close the wound, otherwise the blood we were passing you through IV would be wasted."

"That, and the fact that your leg was going to be marked with a scratch forever."

Mikasa swallowed. She wanted to ask about her face, but Hange haven't acknowledged it. Maybe… maybe it wasn't that bad to have a scratch on her cheek.

"Eren?"

"He has a great future ahead him. I couldn't let him down while you were healing perfectly."

So, he was a good man after all. If this wasn't a proof, then she didn't know when was she going to have another again.

"I… Thank you?" Then she shook her head. "But I cannot get over the fact that you went inside my pargents' heads."

"That's why you have to agree before I show you what you need to know." He had a kind expression. "I don't want to… disturb you."

Mikasa combed her hair with her hands, trying to process all the information. She stood up, walking back and forth to calm herself. He didn't move from the couch.

"These memories aren't mines. They are Levi's. He told me to show you this when danger comes."

Mikasa stopped moving. She turned around.

"What are you talking about?"

Hange stood up too, resting a hand on Erwin's shoulder. He was not facing Mikasa.

 _How bad is it?_

"Vampires are in a cold war since a hundred years ago, Mikasa. More sooner or later, this war is going to reach us." _This war is going to reach humanity._

Mikasa's body felt heavy. Her family, her friends…

"You're Levi's protégée. If his enemies — _our enemies—_ find out about your existence… This war is going to end and we… We are gonna lose."

"I don't… I don't understand." But she did, of course she did. She just didn't want to admit it, to admit that _this_ was the hell she didn't want to face from the beginning, the thing that she had feared way too much.

 _I have some issues to take care about._

 _What kind of issues?_

 _Dangerous ones._

"Levi's more important than you think, Mikasa." Hange looked genuinely worried.

Then Erwin was also standing up, his face showing determination.

"If Levi dies, we all die. That's why we have to protect you. Because if you die, he'll die too."

 _They'll try to find a way to harm me. I won't let that happen._

 _"_ Why?" She asked, and then she realized it was the wrong question, because the truth was…

"Because you are his mate."

* * *

 **I know, I know. This was short. I needed to release it so I could go on with the plot. That revelation... Yeah, that is.**

 **Thanks for reading and for being patient with me, I really love all your comments and opinions about the story, they warm my heart, you don't have any idea how much.**

 **La que tals.**


	9. The Morning Hunting

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 **xx**

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

 _For Levi, it had been a long, long time since he felt something as human as weakness._

 _There wasn't anything as close as instability in his so called life, and this had been one since the moment he entered that bathroom with his father's mate, Hitch._

" _She'll be here." He had told Hange. "Don't let anyone get into the bathroom."_

 _Levi wasn't paying attention at all. In the first place, he was so focused on killing Hitch that he didn't take a whiff of the little thing inside the cubicle until it was too late. He'd trusted Hange, but she didn't count on the girl indirectly evading her eagle eyes._

 _As soon as he felt her presence as a whole, he realized that, if he smelled a little deeper towards the closed cubicle with the thunderous heartbeats, he would forget about his mission and claim that poor human as his. So he kept his deception till the end, and when the last drop a Hitch's blood was running down his throat, showing him all the information he needed to kill his father, then that was the moment he really smelled it._

 _That stranger's arousal, coming through his nostrils and hitting his every fear, making his always proud knees tremble, like two minions wanting to succumb in front of their so long awaited goddess._

 _And she was crying. Oh, that delicious, excited woman was crying, but her heartbeats, a marvelous sight to his vampire eyes, weren't because of the fear._

 _They were because of the lust poisoning her, the invisible power calling her towards him, towards her destiny._

 _After all, Levi wasn't lying when he told her she was going to die in the hands of a vampire. But he didn't know till he was so attached that it was_ his _hands the ones supposed to end it._

 _How much he wanted it to be wrong, he even told her that wasn't going to happen, hoping he, himself, could believe it. That was his second weakness, that of wanting to transform her into what he was just to have her till the world tear fucking apart. He pained for her, and the pain grew as he followed her, as he discovered she was somehow surrounding her life with those legends from really old times. She was looking for him, and he couldn't do anything but hide, and hide, and hide, and wait for his senses to hit him back and make him understand she actually had a life and dreams that made her nights shorter._

 _Sometimes,_ most of the time, _he didn't care. He just wanted her._

 _He was still a monster and that… well, that wasn't a weakness at all._

 _But Levi became weaker when he started to drink animal blood just to please her, he became weaker when he dragged her with him to a fucking restaurant like a fucking normal being, weaker when she convinced him to train her at nights, when he felt the tentation of her flesh and the grip of her fingers in his body. He had to suffer her heart blooming with every beat, the process going through her beautiful face, chest, limbs and that pure, hidden spot between her strong legs. His mouth went wet with poison just remembering how she kissed him and how she answered to his body. That, another weakness to add to his never-ending list._

 _He wanted, how much he wanted…_

 _Yet Mikasa had a life, and he wasn't into it. He was no one –oh, even being her mate–, he still was no one to decide against her own life. He had to believe she was going to survive to her destiny without him because there was no way he was going to drag her to his world, as much as he wanted to, as much as his poisoned heart wanted to beat for her, Levi was determined to keep his place as a guardian and nothing else._

 _Even if that meant being weak forever._

 _…_

Petra was on the left tree, Gunther on the right. He was on the floor. All of them were waiting, not moving, not even breathing. Why would they, anyway? The needn't it explicitly, they were monsters, those the children didn't fear, but the ones they actually loved.

They were so wrong.

The night was almost over, the beginning of a new sunrise creeping the horizon, but they were prepared for it, though the tension was tilting their skin like annoying moths. Very far in front of them, a cottage had its lights off, but they were still capable to hear the laughter and the cards going back and forth, the little old radio playing The Beatles through a horrible signal. If they focused even more, they could smell the intense essence of whiskey and blood, _human_ blood, mixed with the stink of timeworn corpses.

The laughter, of course, was from vampires.

Levi almost growled out loud. He did it mentally, adapted to hunt like if it were as easy as taking a bath. He drank up a whole bear before coming there, but he was thirsty. Not for blood in general, but for a more delicious, more worthy blood, blood like the one covering the cottage's floor.

But he knew, if he drank human blood, he would still _be_ thirsty.

Because the human blood he wanted was his mate's. And how dangerously good, how torturous it felt the lust stirring with hunger, maddening him until his body reached sickness.

He almost exhaled when he remembered his place.

 _I must focus,_ he thought, _think of what they took from you, what they can take from you._

Closing his eyes to go back to his mission, he opened them with determination filling his limbs.

 _"Now."_

Petra moved from her hidden spot like a shadow, her feet barely touching the floor. She was apparently fragile, like a leaf falling from a tree, but that was her main weapon, deceive. She screamed, unable to stick to stealth, and that was the moment the cards stopped moving and the laughter extinguished.

Levi used the black teleportation. A second later, he was inside the cottage, staring at three vampires crouching at a corner, hissing at him with their eyes shining red and their mouths contorted, showing a bunch of tusks that fought to have space in their darkened faces.

Levi recognized them, and so did they, but he wasn't scared like them.

He was enraged.

The hissing went off when they heard another scream, so desperate and full of wrath that they understood this wasn't just any visit.

The prince and his black widow had found them.

Levi smiled, showing the slow and deadly transformation of his teeth into deadly fangs.

They were two boys and a girl, two of them blond, the tallest one with black, soft hair. By the smell of their bodies, they had been living on the outskirts of the city from quite some time. Maybe a week, maybe two, but they had chosen good snack, that was sure. Behind them, six bodies were piled. The oldest one was starting to stench.

Levi growled by the mere fetor, and the vampires crouched a little more, trying to hold a defensive pose that wasn't quite believable. He could sense their fear and uneasiness; it was pouring out of them as strong as the stench of the bodies.

Berthold, Reiner and Annie were their names. He knew their faces, interests and stories through Hitch's memories, Zackly's mate.

If they didn't cooperate, Levi was going to kill them. They'd helped Zackly do his cruel will, not caring a crap about the horrendous trail they were leaving between humans, reveling vampire's existence a little more every day.

Of course, that wasn't Levi's solely reason to finish them. Though he tried hard to cover it, Petra's impatient screams were a reminder of what these vampires had done to his friends, those he insisted of setting away from him.

Those that were _still_ living.

"Which one of you is going to tell me where my father is?" He asked, taking a step towards them.

The brawniest, Reiner, went to cover the other ones, his hands pushing back the little blond girl and the tall, freckled boy.

"None of us." He said with his contorted voice, spitting saliva in the process.

Levi crossed his arms. "Brave." He commented, "Though is not what I'm looking for."

"We don't know where he is" Said Berthold, gaining hissings from the other two.

The lie was obvious.

"Oh?" Levi's eyes narrowed. "You shouldn't lie to me, that's not good." He spoke the words like if he were speaking to children.

Petra screamed again. Levi felt her resistance growing weaker every second.

"Please…" Said Berthold, visibly terrorized.

"If you don't speak, I'll make you."

Levi took out a silver dagger, similar to the one he gave to Mikasa before he left her. Through the window, he could feel the warmness of the sun embracing the old night.

He had to hurry up.

"Where is Zackly?" Asked Levi.

"We are not telling you." Said the blond one, Annie. _She is dangerous,_ thought Levi. She was the least scared of the three of them, her face calm and serene as if Levi wasn't there at all. These vampires were part Zackly's inner circles, of course they knew who Levi was, they'd been warned so many times that they should have known being away from their creator wasn't a good idea. Why, then, were here? He couldn't understand it.

"So you prefer the hard way."

Annie let out a smug smile. "We'll see about that."

"OK then." Said Levi, and his eyes started to turn darker, his veins creating sinister vines over his face. " _Petra."_

It wasn't necessary to say it out loud. Petra entered with a horrendous scream through the window, crashing the glass as her limbs gave way for her.

She went straight to Annie, stamping her with her body against the floor. Behind her, Gunther followed, targeting Berthold. Levi went for the brawny blond, his dagger pointing forward, and then the disaster started.

Among the vampires, Petra was called black widow. When she was a young vampire, she found out her mate was a human. She married him, later transforming him into a monster like her. Years later, a vampire killed him. Since then, she spent her life looking for vengeance.

After fifteen years searching, she found the one that took her mate.

As Levi fought with the brawny vampire, he heard the beastly roars coming from the black widow and the female titan —as it was called Annie—, every thrust and every kick making the wall tremble. Levi dodged the huge bites that Reiner throw him, slipping through every little space Reiner left for him indirectly.

He felt the power pouring from Reiner's limbs: it was the human blood, making him stronger than normal. However, Levi was faster… and wise. Just with his eyes, he turned into shambles what was left of Reiner's confidence, exposing more and more the fear he actually felt, the obvious thought written on his forehead: _We're gonna die._

Levi kept punching and moving around the vampire, incapacitating him with his left hand. Their movements were almost a cluster of flashes and blurred lines, the sounds as stirring as those of two rocks crashing against each other. Levi was a silent demon, while Reiner screamed here and there, the only way to drain his terror over the fact that he was facing a vampire _prince._

Somehow, both fell over the piled corpses, and Levi let out a harsh sigh when his lungs got filled with stinging air. He pushed his dagger over the vampire's arm, finally having free access to his limb, and then he heard a pained scream coming from Petra. Levi got distracted for a second when he saw her being impacted against the wall, Annie still showing her crystallized fist in front of her.

Petra didn't stand up.

Reiner growled, and Levi almost received a bite if it weren't for Gunther, who had thrown Berthold like a bullet towards the brawny vampire.

In less than three seconds, both vampires had hit the wall under the window. They were panting when they got up, their fangs so wet with poison that it was dripping from their mouths, and then Annie was in front of them, her arms opening like a barrier.

She smiled at Levi, showing her long, elegant canines.

"No!" Screamed Levi, but it was too late.

The three vampires disappeared in ashes.

"Shit!" Levi ran to the window, smelling the air with a scowl. He looked at Gunther. "Take care of her. I'll be back." Then, he teleported.

Levi appeared between the pines and he didn't stop for a single second his running. The vampires, without knowing, had left a great amount of essence to guide him to them. Using black teleportation —that rare, but powerful skill— wasn't enough to flee from him. He heard their fastened steps ahead of him getting nearer and nearer as he approached.

In the way, Levi recovered a crossbow Gunther had hidden on a tree, and then he kept running, his eyes observing beyond the possible, the trio's shapes never escaping from his eyes. The trees were starting to lack, leaving only plain zones and making it easier for Levi to see his target in front of him. The sun was almost at its best, just a mere minute to shine proudly and wave a goodbye to the night. Levi kept running with the crossbow pointing to the ground, trying hard to not loosen himself with thirst for vengeance. He couldn't let emotions get on his way, not now that he was closer to end Zackly's reign.

He heard Berthold gasping, terror showing in his voice, and them Levi saw it: there was a highway between the woods, not far away from them. Levi shut his mouth tighter, hurting himself with the tip of his fangs. He counted the seconds, observing the sunlight starting to reach it all. He waited, and waited and waited, and as the trio finally crossed the road, he bended.

His knees curbed against the dirt, awakening dust behind him as he stopped motioning. Then, with an impossible speed for a simple human, he raised the crossbow in front of him, aiming with perfect expertise, and shoot.

The arrow went faster than a bullet, seizing the air, and impacted the back of Berthold's left knee. At the same time, the sunlight exploded beautifully over the solitary highway, dividing their paths in two huge spaces.

Annie and Reiner screamed, though not as louder as Berthold did when he fell on the lane. The light burnt their exposed skin as quickly as a piece of meat falling over a bonfire, and they fled, afraid and hurt, to the secure land under the trees shadows.

They thought Berthold was with them, but they were wrong. Berthold was twisting like a snake on the middle of the highway, his skin darkened and smoking with a horrible hiss. He rolled and kicked, his fingers scratching at his wizened face, and he kept screaming nonsense as the sun shone, and shone, and shone.

Annie almost went to the light. Reiner grabbed her from her back, lifting her as she stretched her limbs desperately towards Berthold. Her eyes, black and red before, were just normal now, her vampire body exhausted with all she had to do to save her friends.

Levi stood up slowly, not showing anything close to mercy, and he went towards the road with slow steps.

"BETHOLD!" Screamed a tearing Annie, still struggling with Reiner, whose face had lost all color. "NO! BERTHOLD!" But when she screamed at Levi, her words were way different. "I'LL KILL YOU, I'LL DRINK YOUR BLOOD AND THROW YOUR GUTS TO THE DOGS!"

Levi didn't stop. He exposed to the sun, to Annie and Reiner's surprise, and he took what was left of Berthold by the back of his blackened shirt. Dragging it with him, he bended and checked he was still alive.

"…How?" Asked Reiner, his face full of shock. "You walked…"

Levi embraced Berthold's body, provoking Annie screams again.

And then he closed his eyes, deciding to use his power to disappear between ash shades.

Petra was going to get mad when she discovered he wasn't planning on giving Annie's friend to her, but the interests of vampires resided on Levi's shoulders. He had searched so hard for some signal of Zackly that he was not going to waste this minion's blood to vengeance.

Just when he arrived to his hidden place, Levi let out a relieved exhalation. Gunther and Petra hadn't arrived yet, and Levi understood he needed to move and quickly.

He stared at the body he was holding, grimacing by its shape and horrible burnt skin, and then he moved out his way the rests of the shirt Berthold had been wearing, showing what used to be a pale neck.

Levi growled, feeling nausea by just the thought of drinking blood that wasn't _hers._ He closed his eyes, beseeching strength from somewhere, anywhere, and then he let out his tusks, feeling the beastly side of his body reappear.

Roaring, he sank his tusks… and then he began to suck.

Blood made a path through his throat, touching every fiber and reawakening his senses. He shivered, clenching his fingers in Berthold flesh and tearing it as thirst became stronger. Berthold gasped, but he was more dead than alive, and his whispers soon quieted as Levi stole what was left of his blood, the last thing holding him together.

Memories that weren't Levi's flood with the red liquid, and soon he was being dragged to a moment in Berthold's life, almost as if the thought was put there in the first place.

When Levi gained stability, he found himself inside a dark room.

There were bookshelves covering the walls, books filling them and also filling the empty corners of the place. There were no windows, just a door, a desk and some chairs surrounding it.

Levi was sitting in one of them, just between Annie Leonhard and Reiner Braun.

And in front of them, Zackly sat, his face showing the best example of tranquility.

"You must go and stay there until I tell you to move." He was saying, his voice calm as hi went through the pages of a large book. He didn't seem to be worried, he didn't seem to be scared.

Maybe he thought his son was just a joke. After all this time, it could be still that way. After all, vampires took their habits for eternity.

Levi wondered how would he look like if he smashed his toes with his hills one by one. Would he still look calm?

"Why there?" Asked Reiner.

"It isn't that far from the campus." Said Annie, crossing her arms. "That way, we will still have food."

Berthold was the only one that didn't speak, and his eyes didn't avert from Zackly. Though he was dead now, Levi still felt his frightened body as it was happening in the present.

"But we won't have anything good to do excepting to wait."

Zackly smiled. "My children, do as I say."

 _My children…_ He really wanted to sound like a good father.

Levi narrowed his eyes, wondering what was this memory leading him to.

Then Berthold dared to spoke, surprising his brothers.

"What are we going to do there exactly, father?" He asked. His voice trembled, and his hands felt even colder than they already were. This power, _Levi's power,_ sometimes was way too hard to use. He already felt fading out. "Who are we deceiving?"

Zackly looked at him, unaltered. Silence went tense, and Berthold thought he was going to die. _No, silly,_ thought Levi instead, _I killed you._

 _"Levi."_ Said Zackly, smiling. "You are deceiving Levi, but..." His smile grew wider, and Levi felt himself shudder outside the memory when Zackly's eyes observed him deeper, like he was setting apart every part of Berthold and showing up the hidden listener in that mind, almost as if Zackly _knew_ somehow that _this,_ what Levi was doing, was definitely going to happen, was something happening _now._

Berthold didn't understand his father's expression, but Levi did, and he understood even better what he said next.

"You'll do a great job, Berthold, I promise you that."

Levi got away from Berthold's corpse, wishing he could forget what he saw, but it was impossible. The memory was inside him now and the meaning of it made sense, it was as clear as the morning sun.

Levi had felt straight in Zackly's trap. Annie, Reiner and Berthold had confused him into believing he was following Zackly's essence. That was the reason they were scared, the reason they were in the middle of nowhere. They had been waiting for something, though they didn't know what or _who,_ exposed to every kind of harm and threats and sharing their last moments as a trio.

Of course they had had a reason to be there.

Zackly was hunting his mate.

He was hunting Mikasa.

Swearing, Levi closed his eyes and willed himself to teleport.

But he didn't move. Instead, a horrid pain when from his toes to his head, making him knelt on the floor. His tusks hid, and his face went slowly back to its human form. Something was wrong on his chest. When he touched it, pain blossomed around his hand, repeating the path the first horrid wave did. Levi tried to teleport again, but he couldn't. He felt weaker and weaker, and Berthold's destroyed face showing him a dead, ghostly smile, was the answer to his ache.

He had been blood poisoned.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! See you next update!**

 **La que tals.**


	10. Nightmare Visitor

**Witness of the Dark**

 _ **by TheStupidSheep**_

 _ **xx**_

 _ **I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin**_

* * *

Armin's girlfriend was arriving in the late afternoon, Armin had said. He was so nervous of going alone that he asked Eren and Mikasa to go with him, which ended putting together a top of the worst awkward moments they had had in a long time.

Just as the one they were having at that moment. Mikasa hated them _so much_. She hated them because they'd been happening a lot these days. Still, she couldn't just get to speak. The heaviness of what she did —the man she killed— was so strong she didn't even feel the right to excuse herself. Not because it had been a murder, but because she didn't feel guilty at all. There'd been a power, one she didn't have before, a power that now she was able to use in order to protect her loved ones.

She'd loved that rush in her veins, the right she had to point out that she'd been able and still was able to protect them. She didn't have to count on anyone, she just needed her own self to do so. Knowing she believed _that,_ made it worse. How could she say such a thing to her friends? One of the many things she now hid from them. She was disgusted with how little she cared of _killing someone._

Was this the way Levi felt? An emptiness, a lack of reaction to what was supposed to make her feel horrified? Was she a monster, already, just like him?

She didn't want to think about it. She already felt bad because of all the things she thought of him after the accident. It showed how easy was for her to mistrust someone, even the creature that taught her how to fight, not to kill, but to protect. She felt bad because of the way she had thought of Ymir and Erwin, both vampires that helped her to survive, even though it wasn't because they cared for her but more because of what she meant for Levi, a vampire prince. Perhaps with her blood not being pure anymore he was going to get over her and pretend that he didn't have a mate. It was easier for him, Mikasa thought. She was not a vampire, for starters, and she was not going to risk the life of her loved ones, all humans like her, all unable to even raise a finger to defend themselves.

No. She was not going to fight a war that wasn't hers, knowing she had people she could lose. This was not her fight, even when her blood screamed the opposite, even when at night, her memories were full of Levi's little smile as he guided her motions in the darkness. She didn't want to think about what she had been thinking: that they weren't mean to be together, after all.

Shaking her head, she took a deep breath, focusing her eyes on the coffee cup in her hands, feeling her cheeks getting warmer. A hand appeared in front of her, grabbing one of hers. It was Armin's.

"You did nothing wrong" Said Eren, putting his own cup on the table. He looked at it with obvious anger and frustration, "You were protecting us. If it weren't by you, we would be very dead right now…"

"Or very hurt." Said Armin, nodding.

"Or very hurt."

Mikasa hid her face on her scarf, relieved to accept how much she had been wishing to hear that from them.

She stared at them, their eyes connecting again.

 _So this is how Levi felt,_ Mikasa thought. Of course, she got to understand what Levi felt: it was better to not get them involved. It had to be that way.

"I know you wonder how I learnt to fight or... Or who taught me. But believe me, is better for you to stay out of this."

"I don't think so." Said Eren.

They went quiet for an awkward second.

"Eren…"

"No." Eren replied, turning red with anger. "Of course I know who taught you. I've seen him way many times and the way he treats you…"

"You've been spying on me…" Something she already suspected, she ended confirming it.

"Of course I spied you! The man whom taught you only visits you during the night and he leaves before sunrise. He looks fucking older than you and has that 'Imma killer' face that not every person has. Tell me, don't you think that's fucking suspicious?" His voice turned louder with every word he spoke.

Mikasa looked around, noticing the people that stared at them from the other tables.

"Eren, stop!" Said Armin in a hushed scream.

"What did he ask in exchange?" Eren said, getting nearer to her from his chair.

"What?"

"For teaching you how to fight, what did he ask in return? If you don't say it, I will."

Mikasa almost lost her voice.

"This is not the moment to talk about this." Armin whispered.

Eren just left out a fake laugh before turning to Armin. "He is fucking her; I saw him kissing her once." Mikasa felt a punch in her stomach. Then she understood it had been his words that let her unable to breathe correctly. "And don't say it's not true, he had you against a tree!"

 _"Oh my god"_ Said Armin, covering his face.

Mikasa dropped her jaw. Then she felt anger, _real_ anger, reverberating in her chest, going up her throat, and…

"You have no proof of what I was or wasn't doing, and even if you have it, it's not of your damn business!" Said Mikasa.

Eren eyes snapped.

"Ugh, c'mon Mikasa! He was taking you to the woods every damn night! You weren't the same as before, you didn't practice as hard as before! You even stopped talking to me like before!"

"It still doesn't give you the right to do what you did!" Mikasa growled.

But then Eren hit the table, shutting her instantly.

"I was worried about you!" He confessed, breathing hard.

Mikasa went mute. Armin was pale, one of his hands on his chest.

They did such a scene that the people around them went completely quiet as well. When the silence got too awkward to handle, the trio decided without even looking between them to pretend they were drinking from their cups as if a hell of a discussion wasn't really happening.

Eren didn't know where to look at, and Armin just kept moving the tablespoon in his coffee, his eyes lowered with shame and sadness.

Mikasa stared at both of them, knowing very well that they were worried but still comprehending just at that moment how deep it was. Armin had tried to reach her, failing, and now Eren was the one that failed to do so as well.

"Why didn't you just say it?" Mikasa whispered. "Was it that hard?"

"It wasn't." He said, lowering his eyes for a second. Then he said, "But would you have told the truth?" He pointed at Armin. "I bet he did it and got nothing." Armin nodded without looking at Mikasa, his coffee the most amazing shit that ever existed.

 _No, never, I would have lied, just like I did with Armin,_ thought Mikasa, to her horror.

"That was my decision, to say it or not. You still spied me, Eren."

Armin sighed. "She is right." Eren said nothing. He crossed his arms, mumbling angrily, and stared through the mirror, not wanting to admit his mistake. Armin turned to Mikasa, "But you shouldn't do risky things without at least warning us. What would had happened if you had gone to the woods and then you hadn't come back? Who could had helped you? Who could have known?"

He was right, so right. She had risked not only her life, but her family's and friends' when she kept Levi's existence to herself. How different would have been things if she had taken them in a different way.

Armin got closer to her, nudging at her. "You know we are your friends, you can—

"Trust you, yeah" She smiled, "I do. I trust you, I… I love you, guys."

They sensed her change instantly. Eren stopped mumbling and turned to her, serious. Armin's smile faded.

Mikasa straightened.

They were right. They deserved to know.

"His name is Levi."

They didn't move.

"I met him around five months ago." She looked bitterly at Eren. "He is not fucking me. We are just…" _Mates. "_ Yeah, we are something… It's hard to explain."

"Why at night? Why not at lunch? Or a nice dinner in a nice place? With music? And candles?" Asked Eren.

"Actually, he did that."

Armin laughed. When Eren looked at him bitterly, he coughed.

"Maybe I'm not far from the truth and he is actually a killer."

"He is not."

"His name won't help at all. C'mon, say something!"

"You won't believe it." She said. Eren rolled his eyes.

But she stood to her words. The possibility of Eren thinking that Levi was a vampire was smaller than an ant, and yet that was still big.

At that moment, Armin's cellphone rang. He hesitated before taking it out his pocket.

"It's Annie!"

Their hearts raced.

Suddenly, Eren leaned on the surface, looking at both of his friends. "We haven't finished this conversation. You will tell us everything, you want it or not!" He said, growling, and then he stood up and walked towards the entrance of the cafeteria as if his dignity was being stabbed with a plastic knife.

Armin let out a trembling breath as he stared at Mikasa, who looked as if a car had ridden over her… twice.

"He's just worried and maybe… maybe he doesn't know how to cope with jealousy." He said, scratching his nape.

"But he's right, and you too." They started to walk out the place. "I just wanted to protect you, I really do."

"Saying those kind of things makes us more worried."

"But it's the truth, I don't want you to-"

"Get involved, yeah. No. We've always been involved; we are your friends."

Mikasa sighed, knowing very well for the look on Armin's face that he was not going to change his mind about this.

"Let's go" she said, trying to deviate the attention from her, "your girlfriend must be awaiting for you."

…

"Is she taller than you?" Asked Eren, his hands in his sweater pockets.

"Eh, no. She is the same height as me."

"Uh, so she's a shorty." When he said that, he threw to Mikasa a bitter look before looking at the arrival zone.

Mikasa rolled her eyes and stared at the people going out from the arrival zone, all of them being greeted by family or friends that were waiting for them as well. Armin started to move his feet nervously, his eyes moving around to find the girl.

"That's… that's her!"

A short girl with a lacy pace walked out the arrival zone. She was using a huge grey sweater and she had the hoodie on, covering part of her face and her blonde hair. She was dragging a white suitcase, a black backpack resting over it, and she never looked up to see where she was going, but she never ran over anyone.

"How do you know is her?" Asked Eren, his eyes darting on the girl.

Armin smiled stupidly.

"Her suitcase is white and, well, that hoodie—"

"It's yours." Said Mikasa. In fact, it was. It said _SUPERNOVA_ in white letters and it had a little hole under the U. Of course she knew, thought Mikasa, she gave it to him as a gift before he left to the uni. "I can't believe you made a hole in it."

"It was an accident." Armin mumbled, walking towards the girl.

She stopped moving, staying in the middle of the way, still looking at the floor.

But she forgot about her suitcase, opening her arms with weak motions, and she didn't even raise her face as she embraced Armin in her arms, her head buried in the nook of his neck and shoulder.

She just knew he was Armin.

When her shoulders started to move, trembling, Mikasa and Eren forgot about their fight and looked at each other, frowning with curiosity.

The girl was crying.

…

Armin kept hugging the girl during the ride back to his house, and even though Mikasa tried to catch his attention through the rear-view mirror, he was completely invested on the girl, which face didn't leave his neck the whole time they were in the car. She couldn't stop crying, her tears falling quietly on Armin's shirt. They were whispering to each other, making it impossible to understand what they were talking about.

The girl was the first to step out of the car when they arrived to Armin's house, mumbling something similar to _needtobreathe._

Armin sighed, still inside.

"What happened?" Asked Eren.

"Her best friend died." Said Armin.

"What? _How?"_ Asked Mikasa, turning to see him better.

"There was a fire, didn't tell me how." He coughed, "He was unrecognizable after it happened."

"Shit."

"She shouldn't have come" Mikasa said.

"I told her just the same, but she insisted that it will be better for her. His family is suffering a lot."

Eren shrugged.

"We will see what we can do to help her."

Armin nodded.

"I will let you know if we're coming to dinner tonight. I don't want to push her to do something she doesn't want to." The three of them looked at the girl walking around, her face directed to the dark sky.

"She seems lost."

"I bet she is" Said Mikasa, "Wouldn't like to be on her place right now."

When she said that, the girl stopped walking, her back to the car.

Armin sighed again. They said bye as he took Annie's stuff from the trunk and guided her to his house.

Just as the front door was closing behind them and Eren was turning on the car again, Mikasa saw a glimpse of the girl's face.

Her eyes, Mikasa was sure, were focused on her. She was also sure that they looked at her with pure hate.

…

Mikasa wasn't surprised when Armin told them only his parents were going to go to her house at dinner. She tried to gulp down the bad feeling the news brought her, but her mother saw her and she wasn't surprised as well when her mom asked "What's wrong, darling? Why do you have such awful expression on that beautiful face?"

"It's nothing."

"Nothing? Of course it is. It's Christmas Eve! You never look this stressed on Christmas Eve."

Mikasa was going back and forth, preparing the table as her mom and the other women on the kitchen –Armin's and Eren's mother— finished cooking. Her mother followed her as she churned a sauce. "Tell me, what is it?"

The girl put the dishes with a little more of force on the table, sighing as she turned around to see her mother. What could she tell her? That she didn't care that Armin's girlfriend was there and her best friend died? That she was angry with this girl she didn't even know and was taking Armin's time when she should have been somewhere else mourning her friend and he should have been there, with her and Eren as it always was?

Mikasa could already see she was not going to be friendly from now on with this Annie. Christmas Eve was so important for them, she didn't remember last time they didn't diner together or without one of them sitting there.

"Don't worry mom. It's dancing stuff, as always."

Her mother looked at her for two seconds before nodding.

"I understand. You don't want to tell me anything, okay."

"Mom!"

"It's okay darling, seriously." She put the bowl with the sauce on the table and turned to her daughter. "I know that you're feeling stressful because of that" And for Mikasa it was obvious she was referring to the new mark on her cheek, "but you know what? I don't care anymore. It doesn't matter how it looks, you're still beautiful, and you shouldn't worry about it as you're doing now. Believe me, a scar will not take your dreams away from you and if it does… Well, screw them, there will be more academies and more places in which you will be more than accepted, you hear me? This thing here" And she touched the scratch, making Mikasa shiver, "It's a signal of your strength and power. You shouldn't be ashamed of it" She shook her head, "you should be proud."

Where did that all come from? How did this conversation turned towards probably the lastest thing she wanted to talk about?

"I killed someone, mom." She whispered, trembling. "How can you say that I should be proud?" _When the only thing I see in the mirror is that damn scar? When the only thing I see is the blood covering my hands? When I don't feel guilty at all? Am I so sick that I care more of what consequences will bring the scar on my dancing career? Am I sick enough so you can see that I'm not a sweet girl? That I kiss monsters in the dark and I wish, very quietly on my bed, he could just come and take me with him? Don't you see it, mom?_

"You protected the people you love. I don't want to think about what could have happened if you didn't…" Her voice turned thin. "I know that you are feeling confused and guilty, but we will get out of this. Together. You will shine again, I promise you."

Her mother then hugged her, resting her chin on Mikasa's head.

"You've grown so much, my _Prima Ballerina Abssoluta"_

Mikasa smiled, hugging her back.

That night, Armin never arrived.

...

Mikasa looked at the mirror on her room. There was no music. Just her, just the mirror, just her room.

 _If you die, Levi dies. If Levi dies, we lose._

She already stretched, and now she was about to spin. Spin, so she could focus on other thing. Spin, so she could forget. Spin, so she could feel lighter, as she was about to open beautiful wings and fly away from this nightmare.

 _The humanity will succumb into hell._

She started moving, her leg not failing her even once. It was strong, and healed, and perfect.

 _Think about the memories, Mikasa, for there's no time to waste. Your life is at risk, just as the one of your loved ones._

Mikasa kept spinning, her eyes seeing flashy images of herself on the mirror. There it was, the scar, popping out her face like a huge signal.

 _You are in danger._

And she thought to herself, non-stopping: _Is this who I really am? Is this my real destiny?_

She didn't know anymore.

…

Something was wrong.

Mikasa woke up almost swimming in sweat. She looked at her cellphone, taking the shirt off as she tried to understand why the heck she was so hot and damp, when she saw the time on the screen.

 _Saturday. Dec. 26_ _th_ _. 02:41 AM_

A lazy breeze reached her and she saw the opened window, the pale-blue curtains moved aside as if someone had done it, letting in the chilly wind of winter. And she was wet from head to toe? Then she remembered that she _didn't_ leave the window opened. Who would do that on winter? Not anyone, not _her._

She heard a noise downstairs, something crashing on the floor, and straightened.

 _Something was wrong._

Never. Her parents never woke up at this hour, not if the only reason to wake up was her.

She jumped out of the bed, clenching her cellphone on her hand, and ran out of the bedroom. Just when she was about to turn towards the stairs, she slipped on the floor, falling downside and hitting her arm.

Water, there was water on the—

It wasn't water.

Mikasa stared blankly at the red, thick liquid, half of her body now covered with it.

She couldn't breathe. She just stared, unmoving, completely paralyzed. She thought that, if she didn't move, it would disappear. The blood covering would disappear and she would stand up as if nothing happened.

But yeah, _nothing happened,_ and the blood was still _there._

So Mikasa stood up, her hands trembling with fear, with _fury,_ and walked downstairs, following the little scarlet path, still clenching her cellphone. It was the only thing she could do, to walk. Moving something else, moving her fingers or lips to scream, it was impossible. They shut down, as if they were machines that she couldn't control at that moment, couldn't follow her orders.

Each step was weaker than the other, and the blood seemed to stain everything she saw. Were her eyes, maybe? Playing tricks on her again? She didn't know, couldn't know. The stairs felt endless, they had just multiplied, and Mikasa thought that this, _this_ was the nightmare she so desperately wanted to avoid from happening.

But when Mikasa reached the end of the stairs and her eyes looked towards the living room in front of her, she knew it was not a nightmare.

It was real.

Her father lying on the floor, completely dried, was real. Her mother surrounded by vampires, her neck dripping blood, was real. As well as Armin, and his so called girlfriend grabbing him by the neck.

Annie's eyes were the purest of red, just as the eyes of the rest of them.

"So, little princess" she said, her fangs caressing Armin's neck, "Why don't we begin? I have plenty of questions to ask you."

* * *

 **I listened to Interstellar Main Theme and Light of the Seven (GoT OST) while writing this.**

 **Hope you like it, we're near the end now. See you next update!**

 **xx**

 **La que tals.**


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